<Begin Segment 20>

TI: So now I want to talk about your family a little bit. At Jerome, you were there with your parents and your brothers and sisters?

NM: Yeah, okay. We asked for our camera and this and that, they send it to us.

TI: In Jerome?

NM: Yeah. They kept it good for us. The government did okay, yeah.

TI: But in Jerome, I just want to talk about each of your family members. Can you tell me your father and mother's name?

NM: Mataichiro, yeah.

TI: Uh-huh, is your father.

NM: Yeah.

TI: And what was your mother's name?

[Interruption]

NM: Tasu. T-A-S-U. My mother's name is Tasu.

TI: Okay. And then, in terms of, in camp, you mentioned your oldest brother was in Japan.

NM: Yeah.

TI: In the Japanese army.

NM: That's my father no older brother, he owned that store. They didn't have any kids, so they went back. Going back, they wanted to take that boy, "We'll bring him back next year," or something in that line. They didn't bring him back.

TI: Okay, so he was in Japan.

NM: He lives in Japan.

TI: Then you had another brother, Jim?

NM: Huh?

TI: And then your next brother was Jim?

NM: Jim.

TI: And where was Jim?

NM: Jim was already in the army in 1941, in the, about April. 'Cause I remember he says, "Come get my clothes and camera, this and that," so I went to L.A., and I drove the Kimuras' truck, and I brought the junks back.

TI: Okay, and then after Jim was you, you were the third.

NM: I'm the third, yeah.

TI: But at Jerome, you were the oldest son, then.

NM: Yeah.

TI: Okay.

NM: No, no, no. Jim was my oldest...

TI: Yeah, but he wasn't at Jerome, though.

NM: No, no.

TI: Yeah. Then after you was Dorothy?

NM: Dorothy, yeah. Dorothy, next is Nancy, and then Mike, and then Shigeko, and Shizuto, George.

TI: And so you all lived in the same, in the same apartment?

NM: Yeah, yeah. We were in the, my brother Jim was in the army already, see. Yeah. Then my older brother, he doesn't know a thing about it. In fact, I had his birth certificate one time, when I went to the birth certificate, so I got one for him, and I gave it to her, his daughter. She came --

TI: This is the one that was in Japan?

NM: Yeah.

TI: And what was, what was his name?

NM: Huh?

TI: What was his name? The oldest, what was his name?

NM: Kazuto. Wait a minute, now... I don't use it, so I forgot. I think it was Kazuto, K-A-Z-U-T-O, Kazuto.

TI: But you got his birth certificate.

NM: That's my oldest brother's name, yeah. I didn't know until I was about seventeen. Found out that he got teased. He went to school, see, Japanese school. And then some kids found out that he was born in America, and then I guess he got teased, and then I heard he cried at home, yeah. So my sister Dorothy, kawaisouni, the only one there, he said, "I want to go back, I want to see him." Said, "Okay, if you want go back over to see him," this is way back. She stayed four years, see. So she missed high school out here.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright © 2010 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.