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GS: This is an interview with Tad Tadashi Sakuma on August 5th at 12 o'clock. This interview will be about his experiences coming to the United States and going to the internment camp and some of his thoughts from that. Dad, what were the names of your parents?

TS: My mother's name was Setsuyo Hamasaki, and my father's name is Otokichi Sakuma.

GS: And where were they born?

TS: They were born in Japan. You need to know the town they come from?

GS: If you remember the town.

TS: My mother came from Hatsukaichi and my father was Kusatsu-machi.

GS: And when and where did they come to the United States?

TS: I have no idea. They never talked about it.

GS: When did you come to the United States?

TS: I came to the United States when I was eleven years old, and 1924, May of 1924.

GS: Do you remember your early childhood in Japan and where you lived?

TS: Well, I do remember a few things but, I don't know if I... when you first start to grade school, that's more or less, that's my first recollection, my grandfather took me to a grade, to go to school. That was the first time I could kind of memorize in my mind.

GS: So you lived with your grandparents?

TS: Yeah, I lived with my grandparents in Hatsukaichi for, 'til I was through third grade.

GS: And what brought you to Bainbridge Island?

TS: Well, I came to work. Because I just came back from Japan, recently, so I didn't have a job, so I took this job.

GS: And what year was that?

TS: Let me see, that was in 1941, 1941.

GS: So from 1920s, early 1920s to 1941, you were living in Seattle?

TS: Yeah, I was living in Seattle.

<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 2007 Densho. All Rights Reserved.