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PW: Okay, could you tell me where and when you were born and your maiden name?

SK: Okay. I was born in British Columbia, Port Moody, September the 29th, 1920.

PW: Could you tell me about your family and your parents? Like where in Japan they came from and what they were doing in Japan?

SK: North, north part of Japan, Fukushima, Fukushima-ken. And it's the Pacific side. He, my father came, went to Hawaii first. This is, I heard about the father passed away, I didn't know that. And he didn't like it, it's too hot for him, so he had the chance to get on the boat, so he came to -- [interruption]. And he came to, naturally, at that time was, I think it's Victoria, and he came to work in the sawmill.

PW: Why do you think your father came to Canada, or to Hawaii?

SK: Well, around those days, I think Tohoku was very poor, and he's not the oldest in the family, so he doesn't have to look after, take over the family's... there was a ceramic, Somayaki, that's the, what the pottery that they're doing. So he wants to make money, maybe, so he came out to the...

PW: And did he have a family in Japan? Did he have a family?

SK: Yeah, he married, and I think that time was oldest daughter and two, three, four, four children at that time. Maybe five. My, my next brother is a seven-year difference, so I think it's five. Yes, five was born at that time.

PW: And how long was your father in Canada? Do you remember at all?

SK: I don't. I wasn't born that time, so... uh-huh. And they went back, I know Mother used to talk, the shinsai, you know, earthquake in Tokyo. So it'd be 1923, but that time I was born, and we went back to get the whole family to, I think, Canada.

PW: Do you remember your early childhood in B.C.?

SK: B.C.? Not very much, no. I don't remember anything. I liked to go through one time, go to Port Moody where I was born, but that time my mother used to say, "Your skin's not clean because of, you're born in the Port Moody with the dirty water." [Laughs]

PW: And did you go to school in Port Moody?

SK: No, no.

PW: You didn't go to school.

SK: I went to school New Westminster.

PW: So then after Port Moody, did you move to --

SK: Yeah, my whole family moved to New Westminster. New Westminster, they call, I don't know exactly what they call Sapperton North, that kind of place.

PW: So did you go to school at all in B.C.?

SK: Yes, I went to New Westminster's school.

PW: Public school?

SK: I don't know -- public school. I don't know how... because after that, we moved to Woodfibre.

PW: Oh, I see. After that?

SK: Yes.

PW: And was your father then working in the sawmills?

SK: Yes. All my...

PW: And your brothers?

SK: Youngest brother only didn't work at the time and said he has to go to school, but the others all worked sawmill, and sisters work in the housework or something.

<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 2005 Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre and Densho. All Rights Reserved.