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BN: So it is October 7, 2022, and we're really happy to be interviewing Sam Mihara. We're here at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, California, and we have Yuka Murakami of JANM doing the videography. So thank you so much, Sam, for sitting with us, I've been really looking forward to this. And as we do, I think with most of our Nisei interviews, I always want to start with asking you about your parents. Although in your case, maybe it's your grandparents, because you have a somewhat unusual situation with your grandparents having come over first. So, yeah, I wonder if you could talk about the Mihara family.

SM: Sure. My grandparents on my father's side, they were from a place called Shikoku island, which is west of Tokyo about 300 miles. And the town was named Matsuyama, Matsuyama city or Matsuyama-shi. My grandparents were not in the upper class, they were working-class people, and my grandfather was a miso maker, that was his specialty. And my grandmother worked in a factory making textile, they were famous for making a certain type of textile, cotton. And so they worked very hard in order to help pay for my father's education. They knew, in order to break out (from the working class), they needed to have my father get a good education and look for a job elsewhere, preferably in the U.S. So they sent him to a very good college called Waseda University. And they worked very hard in order to have him graduate. What was unusual is that his major was in English, and his minor was religion. So when he graduated, he was very good in English, and, of course, he's very good in Japanese. And so he had no problems finding a good job in San Francisco working for a newspaper. The paper was called the New World Sun, and it's a bilingual paper. And my father, his first job was to write articles in English for this bilingual newspaper. And that developed into a better job, and he became an editor of the paper, and so he was quite successful. He met my mother in San Francisco and they got married, and as a result, I was born in 1933 in San Francisco. And so I'm an American citizen by birth.

BN: Okay, thank you. Can you just let us know your father's and your mother's names?

SM: Sure. My father's name was Tokinobu Mihara, and my mother had actually two names. In Japan, she was born with the name Sueko. But when she came to the U.S., my father gave her a new name, which is in English, called Esther. And so she now became Esther Sueko Mihara. And that's been her name ever since she was married.

BN: And then the newspaper your father worked for, became editor for, this is the Shin Sekai?

SM: Shin Sekai is the Japanese name for the New World Sun newspaper.

BN: And do you know what year he came over?

SM: It was about 1920, just after he graduated. So he didn't spend very much time beyond the college to get to work. So he came fairly quickly.

BN: And then you mentioned that he, because of his education at Waseda, he spoke English really well. What about your mother?

SM: Well, my mother came from Yokohama. I don't think she was college educated. In fact, she went to high school in San Francisco, and probably shortly after that, then she met my father. But they lived around the corner, their house was just around the corner from us. And that's how they met.

BN: And did she also speak English pretty well?

SM: She did not speak very well, English, I remember speaking to her in Japanese more often than not. My father was very bilingual, and I had no trouble speaking either English or Japanese.

BN: And then your Mihara grandparents, they were also in the U.S. as well?

SM: Naturally they came to San Francisco before, while (my father) was in college, and they established a miso factory in the basement of our house. And that's how he began, by being able to make some money to help pay for my father's education.

BN: Now, did your father have siblings?

SM: What?

BN: Did your father have brothers and sisters?

SM: Oh, my father had one sister, elder sister, and one younger brother.

BN: Okay, so he was the oldest son.

SM: He was the oldest son, right.

BN: What happened to them?

SM: Oh, they went their ways. Sister after camp went to Chicago, and the brother went to New York.

BN: But they were both in the U.S. also?

SM: They were both in the U.S.

BN: Were they in San Francisco as well?

SM: Yes, they were in San Francisco up until that time before the war.

BN: And then in terms of your family, and you had a brother, I know.

[Interruption]

BN: So in San Francisco, did your grandparents live all together under one roof with your family?

SM: My grandfather on my father's side and my grandparents on my mother's side lived separately.

BN: Okay. Oh, your grandparents on your mother's side were also here?

SM: Yes, right.

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