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TI: And we talked about this earlier, you were talking about, when it comes to nicknames, there were different categories of how people got their nicknames? I think you said one way was kind of like their physical traits? Do you remember that?

VI: For nicknames?

TI: For nicknames.

VI: Oh, yeah.

TI: So talk about that, how nicknames were kind of given in terms of different categories.

VI: Okay. One of the worst places that they got nicknames was in the Catholic Maryknoll. That one Maryknoll class, we had the guy named Egghead because he was shaped like an, head was shaped like an egg. We had a guy named Popeye because his eyes were popeyed.

TI: But you said these are all Maryknoll guys?

VI: Yeah, that was Mom's...

TI: And so they were given those nicknames while they were at Maryknoll? Or later they were...

VI: I don't know.

TI: Okay. So Popeye, Egghead...

VI: Killer. Because we had, nicknames came from two different areas. One of them was physical thing, and the other one that aren't really nicknames, but they're short for Masaru, Mas, you know.

TI: Okay, so oftentimes Japanese names that people...

VI: And then what happened is -- this is my theory -- that when the Isseis came to the States, and they had kids, and they wanted to name, give them an English name, I think a lot of them thought about George Washington. But you'd be surprised at how may Georges there were. In our group, I think there were about five Georges. So you'd never holler, "George," so you always had to use Tano or your uncle, he used to call me Jipo. So that, a lot of times, became... for people that don't know where that came from like nicknames. The other one was the appearance. Like...

TI: Shorty or Egghead.

VI: 8 Ball became the head of the college, because he had a nice, round head. So it was like a billiard ball. You don't call him Billiard, but say 8 Ball. So I'm sure he got 8 Ball. And one of the funniest experiences were a friend of ours came from back east.

TI: So this is a white Caucasian?

VI: White Caucasian.

TI: Actually a work colleague of yours, right?

VI: Right. And then he wanted to see the Oregon coast. So we went down the Oregon coast and they had the hotels that gave you breakfast. So one day we were down at breakfast with Bob.

TI: Right, your white friend.

VI: Yeah. And we saw each other.

TI: You saw another Nisei?

VI: Another Nisei. He saw me, the first thing I says, "Hi, Rabbit," he says, "Hi, Junks." Bob says, "Who was that?" [Laughs] For us, that was just normal.

TI: And this was someone you hadn't seen for a long time, Rabbit.

VI: Well, he was a Seattle person. I hadn't seen him for a little while, but I've always known that. But in the Oregon coast, you'd never...

TI: But he called you Junks and your friend Bob knew you as Victor, and so he was confused, like why did Rabbit call you Junks?

VI: [Laughs] Yeah. And the nicknames came with body, too, like Takiyama was very tall, we called him High Pockets because he was tall. So a lot of the nicknames came that way.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.