Densho Digital Repository - Hannah Hirabayashi Interview (Densho ID: ddr-densho-1000-493-3)

<Begin Segment 3>

BY: So I'm going to ask you about siblings. Did you have any siblings?

HH: I had one sister, she's about six and a half years older than I.

BY: And what was her name?

HH: Amy. Amy Emiko.

BY: Amy Emiko, and she was born in...

HH: '32.

BY: 1932. So then did you --

TI: Oh, I just wanted to... when I ask a question, I'll just do this. You can wait but... going back to your parents, I was curious, when you were growing up, did they speak to each other in English or Japanese?

HH: Oh, Japanese.

TI: So your first language was Japanese, growing up?

HH: Uh-huh.

TI: And same with your sister?

HH: Yes, uh-huh.

TI: We'll get to it later, but then where did you learn how to speak English?

HH: In camp. Because we had all these kids my age and older, and all the young people spoke English.

TI: And how about your older sister, she's like six years older, and she was probably going to school?

HH: Yeah, elementary.

TI: And so how did she learn English?

HH: Again, through school, I'm sure.

TI: Because I was looking at your parents' background, and it could be English but it could be Japanese, and I was just curious about this. And one other question about your parents' religion, were they religious or spiritual?

HH: Well, spiritual, yes. Religious, to me, religious means belonging to a church and going through all the rituals of church. Of course, they were always Buddhist inside. So I guess you'd say we were Buddhist, I think that's the culture, though. Almost everybody from Japan was Buddhist. Then my dad became a Presbyterian because one of the ministers someplace, Japanese minister, was Presbyterian, and he just told my dad, "Well, you ought to become Presbyterian," so that's what he was. But not a practicing one, just went through, and they were married in the Presbyterian church.

BY: Interesting. Okay, so you were born only three years before the war, so you were pretty young. Do you remember anything about that time before the war? Like do you remember the house that you lived in, or do you have any memories of that time before the war?

HH: Well, just the grocery store that my folks had, Judkins grocery store. I just remember living up there. I don't remember what it was like upstairs. I don't really remember.

BY: Yeah, I mean, you were three, so I think people say that you don't really remember much before you're three years old. So you lived above the grocery store and your parents worked in the grocery store downstairs?

HH: Uh-huh.