<Begin Segment 2>

MN: What year were you born?

RN: 1916.

MN: In your sibling hierarchy, where are you? What number child are you?

RN: I'm the fourth.

MN: All the children were born in Montana, Missoula?

RN: Pardon?

MN: All the five children were born in Montana?

RN: No. My youngest sister, she was born in Seattle.

MN: Can you share with us the story of your birth?

RN: I don't, I don't understand. The story of my birth, how could I when I was just born? I was just a baby.

MN: But where did they tell you you were born?

RN: They told me afterward... they didn't tell me, I just got it. Maybe, maybe my brothers told me where I was born, but, well anyway, I was born in Missoula, Montana.

MN: In a hospital or at home?

RN: I was born at home. In fact, they tell me that I was born in the vegetable field. My mother was working in the vegetable field and I was born out in the, out in the field. I don't know how true it is, but...

MN: Your three older brothers and sisters have Japanese names. Do you have a Japanese name?

RN: No.

MN: Why not?

RN: Because they named me first, and I don't know where they got it, but they named me Roy. Now, Roy could be written in Japanese. That's why I didn't need a Japanese name. My Japanese name would be Roy.

MN: What is the first language that you learned? Is it English or Japanese?

RN: What?

MN: What is the first language that you learned, Japanese or English?

RN: [Laughs] I guess Japanese.

MN: And that's how you communicated with your parents, in Japanese?

RN: No. I communicated with my father in English, but I communicated with my mother in Japanese. Because my father, he was very proficient, he became very proficient in English.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.