<Begin Segment 1>

BN: Okay, so we're here interviewing June Aochi Berk on December 18, 2018 in her home in Studio City. Interviewer is Brian Niiya, and Yuka Murakami is videotaping this. And I think, when we start, as we often do, if you can tell us a little bit about your, starting with your parents, who I believe are both Issei.

JB: Right. My father, I found out, came to United States in 1906 as one of the railway workers. And as he tells it, he worked on, while they were laying the tracks in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, and he was the cook. So he went to the stores to shop. And as he tells us, when he needed eggs, he would go like a chicken, and then he would taste each barrel to see whether flour, salt or sugar. And he also told us the story that when he was feeding the workers on the table to make pancakes, and he'd always say, "Shut up, shut up," and the guys would get upset with him, get angry. He didn't know why they were getting angry with them, he just came, "Shut up." What he was saying was syrup, "Pass me the syrup." [Laughs] Anyway, he was a gidayu teacher, and the gidayu teachers are those shamisen players, and they teach the singer to sing and narrate the kabuki story. So he must have learned that in Japan before he came over.

[Interruption]

BN: Before we go on, what was your father's name?

JB: Oh, Chujiro Aochi. He was born in 1879, so he came over here when he was in his early '20s, and he had heard that the streets were paved with gold. And he said, "After I make my first million, I'm going to go back to Japan." Well, he never went back to Japan, he's one of those. And I don't know what he did after working on the railroads. I know he got married up there, and his first wife died and left him a son. So then he went back to Wakayama and married my mother and brought her back. And she came here in 1924, just before the time they had to close Japanese coming over. So she was here, and she's my mother, and her name was Kay Aochi. And through them, I have an older sister, Kay, and I have an older brother, Yas. And I had an older half brother from his first marriage named Tom. Tom was in the 442, in Company M, and was injured in Europe, but safely came home, he was one of the lucky ones to come home. My brother was active in sports in Los Angeles before the war, in camp, and also in Denver, Colorado.

BN: This is Tom?

JB: Yeah.

BN: How much older was Tom?

JB: Tom was fifteen years older than me. He was already married when he volunteered for the 442, and he was in Poston camp; he wasn't even in Rohwer.

BN: He was already sort of on his own.

JB: He was on his own, he was married and had three children, and he volunteered. But luckily he came home. But he is now deceased, and so is my sister, so now all that's left is my brother Yas and me. We grew up here in Los Angeles, in the Hollywood area, sometimes known as Virgil District. And talking to my brother the other day, he can remember every family that lived on Madison, Westmoreland, Virgil, and it was sort of like going back in time. It was fun. And we were evacuated in 1942, May 7th, I remember. And we were sent to Santa Anita. And I recently visited the horse stall that I was in in Santa Anita, that was really something. Because I didn't realize how small the horse stall was; I thought it was a big room when I was small. Because my mother, my father and I, slept in the back stall, and my brother and my sister slept in the front living room where they kept the hay, I guess, for the horses.

BN: Actually, I want to go back a little. But before we leave this, you found the exact stall, still standing, that your family was in?

JB: Uh-huh. And a horse was still in there.

BN: Do you remember the address?

JB: Barn 5, I think it was. I have it written down, I can't remember off the top of my head. But we took a picture of it recently, and that was this past year.

<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 2018 Densho. All Rights Reserved.