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Title: Yone Bartholomew Interview I
Narrator: Yone Bartholomew
Interviewer: Tracy Lai
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: May 1, 1998
Densho ID: denshovh-byone-01-0002

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TL: You've mentioned in past conversations that you were fostered out, so to speak. And I'm wondering if you can tell more about that experience, how, how old you were and the family, tell us a little about the foster family.

YB: Well as I look back, I'm told, that when I was born -- toddling, barely toddling around -- there was another couple who did not have any children. And having seen me, they said, "Oh I wish we had one like that. We'd sure like a child, but I'm not able to have any children." And so my Dad says, "Fine I expect to have a big family. I have two in Japan and this one, and will have many more, but if you want her, you can have her." Without even consulting poor Mother. And Mother said, "I had nothing to say" -- because she felt sorry for the family, too -- "but I was so happy to have my firstborn here because I missed my two in Japan." But she gave me up in order to make the other family happy and I was raised by the, I would say, Yamada family, actually their legal name was also Utsunomiya. And my foster mother was very well educated that she looked into the family history background to find that at one time, all those Utsunomiyas were together and then spread all over, so that they may end up in different parts of the prefecture (or Japan).

TL: So that by legal name, do you mean legal in Japan and somehow when they came to the United States they were, on paper named... Yamada?

YB: Paper name both Utsonomiya. And then, because most people could not pronounce the name Uts, they'd say uts, uts... and Papa says we got to change that name. And to a very simple name of Yamada. Only it turned into a Spanish name because when I went to school, instead of Yone Yamada, they'd call me Yone Yamada, so it became typically Spanish. And that's the way I was known as Yone Yamada.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.