Densho Digital Repository - Stanley N. Shikuma Interview I (Densho ID: ddr-densho-1000-517-5)

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BY: Okay, let's talk about your mother a little bit. So what was your mother's name?

SS: Mom's name was Yoneko Okano, and everyone called her Niki.

BY: Okay. And where and when was she born?

SS: She was born on April 19, 1915, in Anacortes, Washington. My understanding is that my grandfather, I'm not sure when he came over, I think it was shortly after the turn of the century. But he was working as a cook in, I think basically logging camps around the area, and then he had gotten a job working as a cook in some restaurant in Anacortes, and that's where she was born.

BY: And did she have siblings?

SS: Yeah, she had... let's see. Uncle Phil was the oldest, Mom was second oldest, and Aunt Ayako, that we always called Aunt Janet, and then Uncle Min and then Uncle Bob, so there were five.

BY: Okay. And did she grow up in Anacortes?

SS: No. She was born there, and then they moved, I'm not sure at what point, to Bellingham, Washington, and then she was sent to Japan, and at eight years old, her and Uncle Phil, which I think maybe Aunt Janet and Uncle Min might have been taken over at the same time. But Uncle Phil and Mom stayed there for ten years. I think Aunt Janet and Uncle Min were only there for about five.

BY: So she was Kibei?

SS: Yeah, so she's Kibei.

BY: And do you know, who did she live with and what did she do while she was there?

SS: So the Okano family came from a little island called Enoshima, which is in Hiroshima-ken, but it's sort of northeast of the city of Hiroshima on the Inland Sea. And so they were sent to live with aunts and uncles on that island. So that's where she grew up, finished grade school, finished high school.

BY: And then she returned to the U.S.?

SS: Then she returned to the U.S. having forgotten pretty much all her English. So initially they wanted to put her in like a first or second grade class because of her English level. But obviously as an eighteen year old, it wasn't going to work that well. So she eventually got a job as a, what we called housegirl, or what she called housegirl, working in the house of the president of a college in Bellingham, I believe it's now Western Washington University. This guy was the college president.

BY: And then presumably she studied English or relearned English.

SS: Relearned English while she worked with them.

BY: Okay. And so was she there when Pearl Harbor happened?

SS: No. By the time Pearl Harbor happened, she had moved. My grandfather had bought a dry cleaning business in Shelton, Washington. I'm not sure when that was, but I think sometime in the late '30s. And she had moved back to Shelton to help run the dry cleaning business.

BY: Okay.