[Correct spelling of certain names, words and terms used in this interview have not been verified.]
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BN: Okay, we are here in Los Angeles to conduct an interview with Mr. Wilbur Sato. The interviewer is Brian Niiya, and on the camera is Dana Hoshide. This is February 4, 2019, and we're just going to get right to it. So thank you, Mr. Sato, for taking the time to speak with us. You've had a very interesting life, and there's a lot of things I'm really anxious to ask you about. We wanted to start with, as we often do, if you could tell us about your parents. Your father, I believe, was Issei, and what you know about when he came and reasons for why he came from Japan.
WS: I don't know too much about that. All I know is his parents came and had to get a brother, and a sister, I think, but they all went back to Japan.
BN: And what was his name?
WS: Pardon?
BN: What was your father's name?
WS: Kijiro.
BN: And you don't know when he came?
WS: What's that?
BN: Do you know when he came?
WS: No.
BN: But interesting, he already had a parent and family here already that he was joining? Do you know where, what part of Japan he came from?
WS: No.
BN: Now, on your mom's side, your mom was Nisei. What do you know about her and her family? Where was she born?
WS: She was born in, I think, San Bernardino.
BN: San Bernardino, California?
WS: Right, I think so.
BN: And what was her name?
WS: Rosemary Teruko Sato. Matsuno.
BN: I'm sorry?
WS: Matsuno.
BN: As her maiden name?
WS: Yeah.
BN: And do you know how, the circumstances of how they came to meet?
WS: I don't know. How who came to meet?
BN: Your parents.
WS: I think they were thrown together. I'm not sure whether or not... I don't know, I think she was living with an older couple, and I think the older couple got her pregnant, I think, I'm not sure, I think so.
BN: Okay. And then she was Nisei, so when she married an Issei, she would have lost her...
WS: Citizenship.
BN: Right. Did she ever recover that?
WS: I think so. I think they changed the law.
BN: Right, but not for a while.
WS: Right.
<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 2019 Densho. All Rights Reserved.