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NW: So it is December 28, 2018. We are here in our studio at Densho with May Watanabe. I'm going to be interviewing, I'm Nina Wallace, and then on camera is Dana Hoshide. Also in the room we have May's daughter, Wendy Watanabe. So, May, before we get started, I kind of want to just go over a little bit of your family background, and some information about you. So let's start at the beginning, and can you tell me when and where you were born?

MW: I was born on May 13, 1922, in Chico, California.

NW: And let me ask you a little bit about your parents. So let's start with your dad. What was your father's name?

MW: His name was Shigeto Ohmura. And later he used Tom, I suppose being in America.

NW: That makes it a little easier.

MW: So I know his signatures would include "Shigeto T. Ohmura."

NW: And where was he from?

MW: Hiroshima. I mean, actually, he was born in Hawaii, but his grandparents and background was from Hiroshima.

NW: So his parents actually went to Hawaii first, and that's where he was born?

MW: You know, I don't know the details about his side of the family, about my grandfather on my mother's side went back and forth. He was kind of doing import-export kind of thing. So she had... actually, I guess she and her two sisters, she had an older sister, were born in Hawaii. And her older sister who was quite a bit older, went to Queens Hospital and trained there and became a midwife, delivered many babies. Kind of interesting that in Japan, the babies grew up and she became their baishakunin. So that was always kind of interesting to me that she kind of became the substitute mother, because their mother died and her younger sister was, I think, a small child. And so the older sister was, took care of them. Because my mother was educated in Japan, so when she was small, she remembers very well how her sister took care of her.

NW: So this is your mother then, your mother's family? What was your mom's name?

MW: Satsuyo. And she had nicknames, I think my father called her Chiyo.

NW: So both of your parents were born in Hawaii then?

MW: Right.

NW: And how did they meet?

MW: Well, they came from the same areas, the same... actually, I'm not sure, it was a community, maybe. And so they were childhood acquaintances. Somehow it developed into more.

NW: Did their families know each other, then? They sort of grew up together?

MW: I think so. They're the same age.

NW: That's interesting. Do you know about what time period this was?

MW: Oh, heavens, I'm terrible about...

NW: That's okay, we don't have to worry about that part too much. Let's see, so they were born in Hawaii, they went back to Japan, or, I guess, went to Japan for an education. Do you know when they returned to the U.S.?

MW: Well, my mother worked in Hawaii, I know. Because she was helping her dad raise money to pay for the family who was responsible for the big thing that makes the gong in the Buddhist temple, and so because my grandfather had a partner who cheated him or something, and so he had to make up for that in business. And my mother worked different jobs, she was a maid in a big home, lawyer's home, where there were butlers, upstairs maid, downstairs maid, chauffer, gardener, cook, huge place, and a very difficult person to work for. And so people said, "You're still working there?" They were surprised that she endured through that. Later she worked in a restaurant for Ms. Hardy. My mother was very small, and she carried trays and did all that kind of thing later. Ms. Hardy liked her so much she made her work at the cash register, which was much easier. And as I told you, she took her to the United States for a trip, but Mother didn't tell her that she wasn't going to go back. Because my father had been in America already in Seattle, and she'd been writing letters. And I guess she just decided she was just going to stay here.

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