Densho Digital Repository - Shiz Inaba Interview

Densho Digital Repository
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Shiz Inaba Interview
Narrator: Shiz Inaba
Interviewer: Tom Ikeda
Location: Wapato, Washington
Date: May 27, 2023
Densho ID: ddr-densho-1000-538-6

<Begin Segment 6>

TI: So I have not... I can't remember if I've ever interviewed a Nisei who was a twin, and so I think maybe this this is a first for me. So I guess, I'm trying to wonder, what was it like having a twin sister? Did people treat you differently, you think, because you had a twin?

SI: No, they didn't.

TI: Now would the two of you do a lot of things together?

SI: We always wore the same clothes, the same style. We both looked alike wearing our clothes.

TI: So people would always see you say, "Oh, you have a twin?"

SI: Yeah, they do.

TI: Now, were there, did people ever confuse you for your sister?

SI: Well, they probably did, but I'm sure they must have, because we looked quite a bit alike, but we weren't identical, more fraternal.

TI: How about the two of you? Did you have your own special way of communicating with each other, like with certain words or things like that? Or a certain look? You could look at each other and know what the other one was thinking?

SI: No, I would never do that. We weren't that close. [Laughs]

TI: But then it sounds like the two of you did a lot of things together, you were always together?

SI: Yeah, we did.

TI: What would be an example of you...

SI: But the only thing, I went to a business college, but she went to a regular college, four years.

TI: So this is much later. So I'm thinking, like, when you're in elementary school, are there examples of you do something where your sister wasn't there? That you would go to the Buddhist temple or Japanese language school or anything that she wasn't there with you?

SI: Well, I would do more... she would study more and I would be playing around more and going into Girl Scouts and all that, and taking hikes in the area with this, scouting to get your badges or whatever. But she didn't do that.

TI: She liked to stay at home and study or read or something?

SI: Yeah, we were different. I was more a, not the studying type, you know, and she was the studious one.

TI: That's good.