Densho Digital Repository - Frank Saburo Sato Interview I (Densho ID: ddr-densho-1000-445-1)

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TI: Today is Monday, August 14, 2017, and we're in Seattle at the Densho office. And so, Frank, I'm just going to start. Tell me when and where you were born.

FS: I was born in Puyallup, Washington, March 16, 1929.

TI: So how old are you now, then?

FS: Eighty-eight.

TI: Eighty-eight. So that's one of those auspicious years, right, eighty-eight?

FS: [Laughs] Yes.

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

FS: My name at birth is Saburo Sato. And let me add on that when I was baptized, there was a Doctor, Frank Herron Smith from Los Angeles who was superintendent of the Japanese Methodist conference, I guess it was. And I'm told he asked what my name was, and my parents told him, "Saburo Sato," and he said, "Well, you ought to have an American name, English name." So he says, "We'll call him Frank," and I've been Frank ever since.

TI: Oh, interesting. So how old were you when your parents had that conversation?

FS: When I was baptized, when I was just an infant.

TI: I see. So, now, did this gentleman baptize you?

FS: Yes.

TI: Okay, so he was also the one who baptized you.

FS: Yeah, he was the minister of the Methodist church.

TI: But you mentioned he was from, I thought you said from California.

FS: Yeah. Well, he was superintendent of the Japanese Provisional conference, I think it was called, a Japanese Methodist conference. And so I kind of laugh about it, but in a way, it's kind of neat, I'm named after a Methodist minister.

TI: Yeah, that's a good story.

FS: And you know, the interesting thing is, as I've tracked through my life, there's a lot of interesting tie-ins that have come in following all that, and I'll cover them as we go.

TI: Okay. So, okay, one is your name Frank, where that came from. And so did you legally get that on like your birth certificate? At what point did that become legal? Because initially you were Saburo.

FS: You know, I'm not sure, but my sister, Betty, who was the oldest in the family before we went into camp and all, she had some document certifying that Frank Saburo Sato and Saburo Sato was the same, one and the same. And that's as much as I have.

TI: Okay, that makes sense, probably because you started using Frank, and maybe it wasn't done legally, but then that document sort of made that connection.

FS: Yes.