Densho Digital Archive
Preserving California's Japantowns Collection
Title: Kiyo Nikaido Morimoto Interview
Narrator: Kiyo Nikaido Morimoto
Interviewers: Jill Shiraki (primary); Tom Ikeda (secondary)
Location: Sacramento, California
Date: December 9, 2009
Densho ID: denshovh-mkiyo-01-0004

<Begin Segment 4>

JS: Okay, so let's start again with your family, your sisters. So you were...

KM: My brother was born, but then he passed away when he was nine months old. I remember that. Only part I remember is I was hiding underneath the porch when he was real bad, that he was upstairs, no, downstairs. The doctor came, and he had pneumonia. That's all I remember of him.

JS: So you knew he was sick, and so you went to hide?

KM: That's why I hid under the porch again.

JS: And were any of your sisters with you, hiding, or just you?

KM: No, just me. I don't remember my sisters.

JS: So your brother was...

KM: Nine months old.

JS: Nine months old, and how old were you at the time?

KM: He was just one, one year younger.

JS: Oh, so you were quite young. You were only maybe two years old when he was sick.

KM: Yes. But that's all I remember. I remember hiding under the porch. I knew he was dying.

JS: So did someone come and find you, or do you remember what happened after you were hiding?

KM: No.

JS: Wow. And then after that, then after... what was your brother's name?

KM: Takeshi.

JS: Takeshi. So Takeshi passed away, and then your sister was born?

KM: I don't remember my next sister. She was born in Stockton.

JS: She was born in Stockton?

KM: They must have had a midwife there, or hospital. But she wasn't born... my second sister was not born in Stockton.

JS: Huh. So was it that your father went to Stockton to work?

KM: No. I think they just...

JS: Took her to the hospital there?

KM: Must be, or midwife there.

JS: Or the midwife there.

KM: And I don't remember my third sister either. She was born in Walnut Grove also, where she was born.

JS: Okay.

KM: But my youngest sister, I remember her when she was born at the house.

JS: And what was your youngest sister's name?

KM: June.

JS: The youngest sister is June.

KM: June.

JS: And she was born at Canal Ranch, in the house?

KM: Yes, in the house.

JS: And do you remember who helped deliver her?

KM: It was Ishizuka.

JS: Ishizuka. So the midwife came to the house.

KM: Uh-huh.

JS: And what do you remember about that day?

KM: That day? Well, they were running around and getting in a lot of hot water, that's all I remember.

JS: Did you help at all?

KM: No. I must have just sat and watched, I guess.

JS: Okay.

KM: She's, what, five years younger?

JS: Uh-huh. So you were... about five years old.

KM: I was maybe five years old.

JS: Wow.

KM: But that's what I remember.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2009 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.