<Begin Segment 9>

SY: Let's talk about all these names that your brothers and sisters had, because they were all American names.

NS: Yeah, well, that was later on. My sister named them, my older sister. My mother and my father was real Japanesey so they had to have Japanese name. Everybody had a Japanese name.

SY: Did they speak any English?

NS: My father and my mother? Oh, no. My father was pretty good 'cause he went to market, and he had all the people that come to buy the flower was American people, so he had to learn to speak English. Well, he was broken English, you know how it is. Because when he comes home, all he talks is Japanese.

SY: And so he called you all by your Japanese names.

NS: Oh, yes, oh, yes.

SY: And your sister was the one who came up with all of these American names?

NS: Yeah, my sister, my older sister.

SY: Your oldest sister. And so she came up with...

NS: Jean, my brother Harold, and Dick and Harry and Bob, Jimmy.

SY: And did she have, did she give herself an American name?

NS: Uh-huh, Jean.

SY: Jean, and so that was Fusako.

NS: Uh-huh.

SY: And so that was something that she did when... she just came up with these names as you got older.

NS: Yeah, as my sister got older. Well, she was the oldest.

SY: So you were never referred to outside of your house by your Japanese name.

NS: No. No one knew my name as Natsuko. Like I told you, at home, when I still was younger, my brothers used to call me "Nuts" because Natsuko was, sounds like "Nuts." Na-tsu-ko, "nuts." So I used to get mad at 'em and chase 'em all over the house. "Don't you dare call me Nuts." [Laughs] I still remember that, especially my second brother, he was so bad.

SY: So you had an interesting time growing up with so many people?

NS: Oh, yeah, oh, yeah. They were all good, though. We never fought that, what you call fight. We picked at each other, yes, but not that much.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.