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MN: And what is your birthdate?

YK: May 30, 1931.

MN: And where were you born?

YK: I was born in the town of San Juan Capistrano, where the swallows come back each year to have their mud nests in the mission there. And so I used to kid that I was so small because the swallows instead of a stork brought me. [Laughs] But anyway, I don't remember too much of my first six years in Capistrano except that I was kidded that I once fell into the toilet in the outhouse.

MN: Tell us that story.

YK: Oh, well, I don't know, I was probably only about two or three years old at the time, and my sister Fumi was watching me. And, you know, we had the typical outhouse with the big toilet hole. And I fell through. [Laughs] So she screamed, and my brothers came running, and they pushed over the outhouse and dug me out and washed me up. So after that, I had to go on a gallon can. But anyhow, (that is what I was told). I don't remember too much more about Capistrano, except that my two brothers did come back after fourteen years, and they went to Capo High School, and my second brother graduated, but my first brother, he was already seventeen, so he only went for about a year or two.

MN: So you were born in '31, and then I think in '34 is when your two older brothers came back, oldest brothers came back. How did you feel about having these two new brothers live with you?

YK: Well, I had so many that I don't recall the impact of two more other than I remember they always talked (that) they were going to Capo High.

MN: And then when you were born, were you delivered by a sambasan?

YK: No. I was born by Dr. Eslinger, but he would come to the farm. So a lot of the children were born on the farm with Dr. Eslinger coming.

MN: Now when you were living in San Juan Capistrano, do you remember if you had an ofuro?

YK: Oh, yes.

MN: Who built that?

YK: What?

MN: Who built it?

YK: Oh, well, the whole house was built by my father with help from other Japanese families, so it was a wooden house. And then there always was the outhouse and then the furoba. Because we had to take the furo every night no matter what.

MN: Who had to build the fire?

YK: Oh, I don't know. I had so many older brothers and sisters. [Laughs]

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