Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Takeko Yokoyama Todo Interview
Narrator: Takeko Yokoyama Todo
Interviewer: Tom Ikeda
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: June 9, 2015
Densho ID: denshovh-ttakeko-01-0001

<Begin Segment 1>

TI: Okay, so Tak, the way I start this is I always talk about where we are and the date. So today is June 9, 2015. We're at the Densho office in Seattle, and in the room on camera is Dana Hoshide, and I'm the interviewer, Tom Ikeda, and we have Takeko Todo this morning. And is it okay if I call you Tak?

TT: Yah.

TI: I always think of you as Tak. So, Tak, I'm going to start with a basic question. So can you tell me when you were born?

TT: April the 3rd, 1927.

TI: So that makes you eighty...

TT: Eight.

TI: ...eight years old. You just turned eighty-eight last month, or a month or so ago, two months ago.

TT: And your mother just turned. She just had her eighty-eighth birthday.

TI: Yeah, my mom did, and dad, both of them did. You're all that same class. And tell me where you were born.

TT: I was born in Seattle, Washington, by a midwife, right on 921 Lane Street.

TI: Oh, so do you know who the midwife was?

TT: No. Well, it's on the birth certificate. I think there was only midwife around that time, and she was doing everybody's.

TI: And what was the full name given to you at birth?

TT: Takeko Yokoyama.

TI: Let's kind of talk a little bit about your siblings. So starting from the oldest, why don't you talk about your sisters, going down.

TT: Okay.

TI: So the first one is?

TT: Keiko.

TI: And do you know what year she was born, how much older she is?

TT: She's about five years older than me.

TI: Okay, so like 1922. And then after Keiko?

TT: Came Yoshiko.

TI: Yoshiko. And she's about three years older than you?

TT: Two or three years.

TI: Two or three years? Okay.

TT: And then myself, and then my younger sister, her name was Akiko. But during the time when everybody was going into camp, everybody was picking up English names, so she calls herself Donna. So she said, "I'm Donna, I'm not Akiko." But she was born 1930.

TI: And did she make that decision?

TT: She did. All those people did. And I know people tried to find an English name for me, but what can you do with Takeko? [Laughs]

TI: How about your other sisters? Did they pick up English names?

TT: No. Well, Keiko, she is Kay, and Yoshiko is Yo, but you know, those were good enough. But, see, with Tak, Tak was always listed in the men's side of any listing of the Japanese people, I'd find my name in there as one of the boys. So I finally met Budd Fukei, and he did the social register. And any time there was a party or any kind of gathering, I was on the men's side. So finally I said, "Budd," I said, "I am a woman." [Laughs]

TI: Because he was the one who would make those lists up?

TT: Yah, he'd make the lists up. He'd get a list of everybody and then he'd just separate 'em exactly the way he thought. So I finally had to tell him I was a woman.

TI: And then after that, did he remember?

TT: Yah, he did.

TI: Oh, good.

<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 2015 Densho. All Rights Reserved.