<Begin Segment 2>

JS: So you had a lot of siblings. How many of you, how many brothers, how many sisters?

RN: I was, when I was seven year old, my auntie, my mother's sister, came to Washington and took me to California.

KN: Or Seattle.

RN: Yeah. They adopted me. So I was raised as a Fujimura.

JS: So what had happened right before that? Your mother had died? Your mother?

RN: My mother, yeah, she was gone.

JS: She was gone.

RN: So my mother's sister is Auntie, she adopted me. And she took care of...

JS: And these are some of the early photos?

RN: Yeah, that's my aunt and uncle. They raised me.

JS: And what do you remember about having to leave the family farm and leave all your siblings?

RN: Yeah, I cried. I didn't want to leave. 'Cause I never saw this auntie or uncle, first time.

JS: Oh, this is the first time you met with them?

RN: Uh-huh. So I didn't want to leave, and I just cried. Even on the train, I was crying. I wanted to be with my other, my sisters.

JS: And how did your aunt console you?

RN: Oh, aunt was real nice to me. She took me to Seattle, and that's the doll that she bought for me.

JS: That's the doll she bought for you.

KN: Can you name all your brothers and sisters, Mom?

RN: Well, Frank and Sam, Sam was the older, then Frank, then George, and then Florence was sent to Japan and she was raised in Japan. She died in Japan, Florence. And then Alice came, she lived in Seattle, but she came and started to live with me.

KN: And then you.

RN: Uh-huh.

KN: Then Lester?

RN: Lester came, May came, too. They all came from Washington. They couldn't live there anymore, they were, wiped all the Japanese out of Auburn.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2010 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.