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TI: Today is Saturday, March 27, 2023. We are in Harrah, Washington, which is right outside of Wapato, which is kind of right outside of Yakima, so Eastern Washington. We're doing an interview with Lon Inaba, and I'm the interviewer, Tom Ikeda, and I'm doing this on behalf of Densho. And running the cameras we have Yuka Murakami and Kimi Engelbrecht. And so I'm going to get started, Lon. So thank you so much. Just for the viewer, we've spent several hours actually touring the Inaba farms as some background. But we'll just jump in. I want to start with you. So just tell me first, where and when were you born?

LI: I was born in Yakima, September 15, 1955.

TI: Okay. So that makes you sixty...

LI: Seven, yeah. Sixty-eight shortly, a couple months short of sixty-eight.

TI: I know this because I'm a January 1956, so I'm sixty-seven. So you're several months ahead of me. So we'll probably end up making some sort of age-appropriate references. What was the name given to you at birth?

LI: Lon Kerry Inaba.

TI: Any significance of "Lon" or "Kerry" that you know of?

LI: No. That's a question you could ask my mother. [Laughs]

TI: Okay, we're going to interview her right after this, so we could ask. And while we're here, tell me your siblings in birth order.

LI: Okay. I am the oldest. My brother Wayne is eighteen months younger, my brother Norm is another eighteen months younger. My sister Diane is five years younger than me, and my sister Terri is ten years younger than me.

TI: So there were five of you?

LI: Yes. And actually, there was a sixth that was kind of fit between Norman and Diane, I believe, and he was Gaylen, he's buried at the Tahoma cemetery.

TI: And it sounds like he passed away kind of at childbirth?

LI: Yeah, premature, yeah.

<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 2023 Densho. All Rights Reserved.