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TI: Going back to your mother, what was your mother's name?

MM: Ichino, I-C-H-I-N-O.

TI: And do you remember her maiden name?

MM: Bichiu, unusual. B-I-C-H-I-U.

TI: Bichiu, okay. And I'm guessing she came maybe from the same area as your father? And do you know --

MM: They were in Okayama.

TI: And do you know what her family did, her father?

MM: Gee, no, I don't. I don't know. But she lived to, I think she was about a hundred three, my mother's mother.

TI: Wow. And did she ever tell you what it was like coming to America for her? Did she want to come to America?

MM: I don't know that, whether she wanted to come or not. (...)

TI: And what about the age difference? Were they about the same age or was your father older than your mother?

MM: (Father was born in 1885, and Mother was born in 1894. Mother was nine years younger.)

TI: And then it sounds like right away, then they started having children? That's when Mikie, you, Lena and Bob?

MM: Lena and Bob were born up at what we called Dee Flat, up on the farm. We were born down there by the sawmill.

TI: Okay, good.

MM: But they all have passed away. I'm the only one left in the family.

TI: And when you think about your mother and father, what kind of relationship did they have? Did you see them interact very much, and did they talk very much? How would you describe them?

MM: Real happy, I think, and they enjoyed the Japanese community, and we had all kinds of programs, you know, holiday celebration in the community building. Community building was built right across the (road) from our fruit farm.

TI: Oh, so this community building was in Dee.

MM: Dee, right in Dee. The Japanese built that, had help, but they built that big building, and now I notice it's all torn down and gone.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2014 Densho. All Rights Reserved.