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JN: Okay. Let's start off and get, warm up, and telling me about your family, who your parents were, what were their names, and where they were born.

YO: What if I don't know where they were born?

JN: Then just tell us everything you can remember about your family, your parents and their names. When they, when did they come to the United States?

YO: That's one thing that I couldn't find.

JN: That's okay. Well, tell us, tell us their names and where they lived on the island.

YO: Well, I could tell where they came from. You want my dad or my mother first? It doesn't make any difference?

JN: Doesn't.

YO: Okay, Isosaburo Katayama, that was my father. He came from Mine-gun, Yamaguchi-ken. And my mother was from Yamaguchi-ken, but I don't know what part. And I really don't know when they came because I couldn't find the record. My dad went to Hawaii first before he came to the United States. You want to know when they got married?

JN: Yeah, what kind of, what kind of work did he do when he came here?

YO: He always had a, like a vegetable farm. That was in Eagledale. That's what he started off with. He had a greenhouse very first, and then he had a vegetable farm in Eagledale, and then a strawberry farm towards the end. That's all, that's about all I know.

JN: Tell us about your mother and how they got, how they met and how they got, when they got married.

YO: I don't remember when they got married, but I know they were married in a Methodist church in Seattle, so they probably knew each other when they were in Japan, or the family knew each other. So I'm not sure where my mother was born because we went to Japan, but we didn't find out where my mother was born, but we met my dad's relatives in Yamaguchi and Hokkaido. That's where his families were. And I don't know what else.

JN: Tell me about your siblings and, your brothers and sisters, and where they were born.

YO: My youngest were, youngest brother was born in Wing Point, where the golf course is now. My brother and sisters were, my oldest sister was born in Fletchers Bay, Island Center, and the rest of 'em, I think, were born in Port Blakely, like I was.

JN: What were their names?

YO: My sister Mei, Meiko, and my brother Yoshio, and then my sister Toshiko, myself, and then Masaro, and Mitsuo, and Shiro.

<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.