Densho Digital Archive
Raechel Donahue and Garrett Lindemann Collection
Title: Roy Doi Interview
Narrator: Roy Doi
Interviewer: Raechel Donahue
Location:
Date: 2010
Densho ID: denshovh-droy-01-0001

<Begin Segment 1>

Roy D.: I was born in Sacramento, California.

RD: When?

Roy D.: March 26, 1933.

[Interruption]

RD: Where were your parents born? Were they American citizens?

Roy D.: My parents were born in Japan and immigrated. My father came in 1903 and my mother came in 1917.

RD: And did they become naturalized citizens?

Roy D.: They became citizens after World War II in 1954.

RD: So they didn't have a chance to before?

Roy D.: They didn't have a chance to become citizens until then.

RD: Did you feel that they were outwardly very loyal to the United States?

Roy D.: My dad was very loyal because when the choice came during the war whether to return to Japan or stay in the U.S., he definitely wanted to stay in the U.S.

RD: How about your mom?

Roy D.: Pardon?

RD: How about your mother?

Roy D.: Oh, my mother too. Because if they returned to Japan, there was no life for them, really. And so they wanted to stay in the U.S.

RD: Did both of your parents work?

Roy D.: My father was a migrant farm laborer. Actually my mother and father both worked on the various farms, and they were not educated very much. My dad had a third grade education and my mother had a sixth grade education, so they were not in an educated situation and so they did mostly farm work.

RD: And what was your life like when you were going to school in Sacramento?

Roy D.: Well, I went to school in, Loomis is a small town northeast of Sacramento, and life was pretty normal. Before we went to camp I was in grades one through five. And I remember just going to school, and I guess I was just a normal kid then.

RD: Well, you were a farm kid. Wasn't Chuck Uyeda one of your neighbors?

Roy D.: Right. Chuck was one of our neighbors, and most of the Japanese in that area, northeast of Sacramento, were in farming.

<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 2010 Raechel Donahue and Garrett Lindemann and Densho. All Rights Reserved.