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MN: Today is January 10, 2012. We are at the Centenary United Methodist Church. We will be interviewing Sande Chikaye Azeka Hashimoto, and we have Tani Ikeda on camera, and I will be interviewing. My name is Martha Nakagawa. So Sande, I wanted to start with your parents. Which prefecture did your father come from?

SH: Fukuoka-ken.

MN: And what is your father's name?

SH: Jenyemon Azeka.

MN: How do you spell that?

SH: J-E-N-Y-E-M-O-N Azeka, A-Z-E-K-A.

MN: Now, when your father first landed in the United States, what kind of jobs did he do?

SH: I don't know if, what kind of jobs he did right away, but from what I recall he was a chauffeur and I think later on, (he) must've learned the trade of working at a dry cleaning place. And so he learned to, to be a dry cleaner, and (...) opened up his own cleaners.

MN: And when you knew your father, did he have an English name, or was he always Jenyemon?

SH: Jenyemon? No, they changed, my mother and my father both changed their names, it would be easier for people to pronounce. So he changed his name to James, which is starting with a J, and my mother was Mumeno, M-U-M-E-N-O, and so they called her Mary.

MN: So you talked about your mother, Mumeno. What is her maiden name?

SH: Hisadomi.

MN: Is she also from Fukuoka?

SH: Yes, they're both from Fukuoka.

MN: Do you have any idea what year your parents got married?

SH: (September 1922).

MN: So in total, how many children did your parents have?

SH: Had four.

MN: And where are you in the sibling hierarchy?

SH: I'm the youngest.

MN: And what year were you born?

SH: 1936.

MN: Were you delivered by a sambasan?

SH: Yes.

MN: Do you remember your sambasan's name?

SH: Nomura, Nomura-san.

MN: And can you give us a little background of Nomura-san?

SH: I don't remember exactly what kind of background you meant, but I know she was related to (Shiro) Nomura, and his wife is Mary, the Songbird of Manzanar.

MN: And what is your birth name?

SH: It's Chikaye.

MN: Chikaye is a very unusual name. What is the story behind your name?

SH: Well, I don't know the story, but I know the kanjis that they used means oya no eda.

MN: A branch of --

SH: My parents.

MN: And now you go by Sande. When did you pick up the name Sande?

SH: I picked it up in junior high, and I don't know how it came about, it's a legal name now with me.

MN: And you spell it very unusual.

SH: I don't know how that came about either. Instead of a Y, yeah, I spell it S-A-N-D-E.

<End Segment 1> - Copyright &copy; 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.