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VY: Well, today is Friday, October 12, 2018, and we are here in Seattle, Washington, in the Densho studios. And today our videographer is Dana Hoshide, and my name is Virginia Yamada. So, Miyoko, thank you so much for joining us for this interview today.

MK: My pleasure.

VY: Thank you. I'd like to start off by asking you when you were born and what name you were given when you were born.

MK: Yes, I was born in El Centro, California, on December 16, 1926. And name, Miyoko.

VY: Miyoko. And where were your parents from in Japan?

MK: My mother is from Kurume, Fukuoka, and my father is from Hiroshima-shi, Hiroshima.

VY: And do you know how old they were when they came to the United States?

MK: What was the question?

VY: Do you know how old they were when they came over to the United States?

MK: Oh, my mother was left behind, so she joined her father and stepmother in Los Angeles. She came over, I saw her passport, she was dressed in a kimono, and her hair was beautifully done in the Japanese style, and she was twenty-one.

VY: When she came to Los Angeles, did she work?

MK: Not that I know of. I remember seeing a picture of her going to barber school.

VY: So she went to barber school, and that was in Los Angeles?

MK: Yes.

VY: That's interesting. I'm going to ask you more about barber school later. And what about your father, where was he from?

MK: From Hiroshima city. And I don't recall his age when he came over, but he came over as a young man, I guess to seek his fortunes, because he was a police officer back in Hiroshima. And when he came over, he first landed in Hawaii, and then came to California and settled in Los Angeles. And I guess he went to barber school, too, because that's the only work I remember my parents doing.

VY: Interesting. Do you know why he went to Hawaii first?

MK: I guess it was just a stopover.

VY: And so I take it they met in Los Angeles?

MK: Yes.

VY: Is that where they got married?

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