Densho Digital Repository - Robert Katsusuke Ogata Interview (Densho ID: ddr-densho-543-1)

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PW: So today is Saturday, October 14, 2023. We are at the studio of Robert Katsusuke Ogata in Fresno, California. My name is Patricia Wakida, and on camera we have Brad Shirakawa. So good morning, Mr. Ogata.

RO: Good morning.

PW: Let's start with your family history, personal family history. When and where were you born?

RO: I was actually born in a little farming area which is now Disneyland. And so my mother and father were, I think we were leasing some property and so on, and farming, and basically that's where I was.

PW: What was the actual name of the town?

RO: Oh, I can't remember. It's one of those things that was a quarter mile south of whatever, so on, so it was really, the closest part was probably where Anaheim is.

PW: And what was your full name given to you when you were born?

RO: Katsusuke Ogata.

PW: Did you choose the name Robert?

RO: Yes, I did, because in high school, it was a very interesting story, but as I was growing up as a young boy, when my mother and father were running the restaurant in Selma, and then two doors down from the restaurant was a pool hall. And my dad used to -- I mean, I was young enough where my dad would take me to the pool hall and so on, and I'd be basically hanging on his back while he's playing pool. And for some reason, I think the person who owned the pool hall was named Bob, I can't remember for sure. But anyway, so then, for some reason, I adopted that name and people, when I was going to school, they all called me Bob. And so that stuck with me for all these years, and yet, that's not my registered real name. And then when I got to a point where I had, was thinking about being a painter and so on, then I thought, well, I'm going to change it from Bob to... I didn't change it officially, but I just changed it to Robert.

PW: And what were your parents' names?

RO: My parents' name? Well, my father was named Toshio, and my mother was, I always knew her as Florence Fumiko, but only by Florence, because in the restaurant then, she is the one that was then greeting customers and taking care of the business and so on. So she had to basically, then, find a name that would be appropriate I think for most people, Caucasians that would come in. Everybody called her... well, where she worked, then everybody called her Florence. I've never asked her why she chose that name.