Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: May K. Sasaki Interview
Narrator: May K. Sasaki
Interviewers: Lori Hoshino (primary), Alice Ito (secondary)
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: October 28, 1997
Densho ID: denshovh-smay-01-0023

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MS: Although I did feel guilty because we were in -- even at that age I could understand that we were behind this -- and then the watch guards were always continually being... there were people posted in there, and the guns were not pointed out.

LH: So what did this make you feel?

MS: Well, it must have left something because up until the time I had gone into camp, everyone referred to me with my Japanese name, which was Kimiko. And so I was always Kimi-chan, Kimi-chan, and that was okay. But I began to sense that it was because I was Japanese that I was in this camp because I looked around and we're all Japanese. And I think that's when I came to this decision that whenever I get out of here, I'm not gonna be Japanese anymore. [Laughs] At that age, it doesn't make any sense but that's what I decided. I never said anything to anyone but I remember that near the end when we were ready to leave, when people would call me Kimi-chan, I would pretend not to hear them. And I could hear them muttering and everything but I wouldn't hear them, and I figured, "That's the way I'm going to do it. I'm not going to be Kimiko anymore. I'm going to be May because that is my name also." And when I... I never used my name Kimiko after.

LH: So you were equating the Japanese Kimiko-chan or Kimi-chan, you were equating that with there was something wrong with being Japanese.

MS: With being Japanese, uh-huh. Yeah. [Interruption] Yeah, and I think there was a lady who challenged me at one point because I didn't use my name Kimiko, and we were doing some cultural awareness kind of activity and she was Japanese.

LH: This is when you were older?

MS: Yeah, this was when I was doing some training. And she had said, "I don't know why you're doing this when you don't even use your Japanese name." And I just started crying. And here I was an adult and you'd think... and then later I explained to her how I lost that name and then she... but I thought, "Gee, why am I crying about that?" It doesn't seem like anything that would, that I should just get mad at her, but I couldn't. Because I was ashamed that I gave up that name. Anyway, here we go. [Cries]

<End Segment 23> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.