<Begin Segment 5>
MN: Now let me ask a little bit about your early beginnings. Where were you born?
SA: Boyle Heights.
MN: Were you born at home?
AS: (Yes).
[Interruption]
MN: Do you remember who delivered you?
SA: Dr. Tsuda. He was a nice-looking young man. Afterwards I saw a picture.
MN: So Dr. Tsuda came to your home and delivered you?
SA: (Yes).
MN: When were you born?
SA: Date? March 3, 1932.
MN: Girl's Day.
SA: Girl's Day.
MN: What is your birth name?
SA: Setsuko from Oseku.
MN: Because that's associated with Girl's Day.
SA: Exactly.
MN: You have an English name also, Evelyn. When did you pick that up?
SA: In camp. Because in those days, you know, you try to Americanize everything, even to our names, and that was suggested from my cousin who was in the army. He said, "You better have an English name," so that's when I picked it up.
MN: Do you know why he picked Evelyn?
SA: I have no idea. We did everything people said to do, we just did it. We were all "yes" people, you know.
MN: When did you go back to Sets, or when did you become Sets?
SA: It's very interesting. (...) When I came out here to California, (...) the people I worked with (...) didn't want another Evelyn in the lab. Okay, so changed it. But I went by both names in the South. (This person was no longer working, however, the staff elected not to have an "Evelyn" in the lab.)
MN: When you talk about the South, Louisiana?
SA: New Orleans, to be exact.
MN: New Orleans.
SA: (Yes).
MN: That'll be after the war and we'll get into that. Now, your parents, in total, how many children did they have?
SA: Total of six.
MN: Girls? Boys?
SA: All girls.
MN: Where are you in the sibling hierarchy?
SA: The last one. Post menopausal baby.
MN: The Long Beach earthquake happened on March 10, 1933. Did any of your family members get injured?
SA: No.
MN: What is the first language that you learned?
SA: Japanese.
MN: Now when you were two years old, you were hospitalized. What happened?
SA: I had diphtheria and landed in the County Hospital.
MN: Now, your first language you learned was Japanese. Were you able to talk to the doctors and nurses?
SA: No. I learned quickly. I could say "drink water," and that's about all I remember.
MN: Now how did you learn to say, "drink water"?
SA: I don't know. I guess they kept telling me.
MN: So then you were hospitalized and you went home and had this diphtheria.
AS: Right.
MN: What happened to your house?
AS: It was quarantined. In those days they had a yellow tag all around the house, very embarrassing for my mother. She was just devastated. The only two who could leave the house was my father and my oldest sister to go back and forth to work.
<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.