<Begin Segment 3>

MN: Yuriko, I want to start talking about you now.

YH: Okay.

MN: Where were you born?

YH: Long Beach, California, Seaside Hospital.

MN: You were born in a hospital?

YH: Yeah.

MN: That's very unusual at this time. Were you also delivered by a hakujin doctor?

YH: Yes.

MN: Now what, what year were you born?

YH: 1929.

MN: You're the oldest of four girls.

YH: Yes.

MN: Your youngest two sisters are twins, which is very unusual for Japanese Americans.

YH: Yeah.

MN: Did your mother have problems delivering them?

YH: No. They were, they were full term, but they were, they weighed, I think it was three and a half and four and a half pounds, 'cause I remember my father bringing them outdoors, and he had a, he had a diaper in one hand and a diaper in another hand, and then he was carrying the twins one in each hand. They were so little.

MN: They were tiny, three and four pounds. Wow.

YH: Yeah. But they were full term, and my mother fed them with an eye dropper because, well, they couldn't, their mouths were so small they couldn't open to put them around her nipple.

MN: Now, what did your mother say about how the Japanese viewed twins?

YH: Oh, they were considered bad luck.

MN: How did your mother view the twins?

YH: She loved her daughters. Yeah. She didn't view them that way at all.

MN: Can you share with us this twins contest in Huntington Beach?

YH: Yes. My mother went every year with my twin sisters, and they always came home with a prize. And she always dressed them in a kimono.

MN: Now, this contest was for everybody, general, not just for Japanese Americans?

YH: No, 'cause they were the only Japanese American twins. There were no other Japanese American twins.

MN: Do you think that's why they were winning all the time?

YH: I think so. I think my mother dressed 'em in kimonos too.

MN: And I'm assuming she made the kimonos?

YH: Yes, she made the kimonos.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.