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MA: So today is Wednesday, June 18, 2008, and I'm here with Helen Harano Christ. I'm Megan Asaka, the interviewer, and our cameraperson today is Dana Hoshide, and we're at the Densho office in Seattle. So Helen, thanks so much for coming to do the interview.

HC: Good to be here, thank you, and good to meet you at last.

MA: Yeah, you, too.

HC: After our conversations on the telephone.

MA: So I wanted to ask just some basic questions first. When were you born?

HC: I was born in Berkeley, California, on August 26, 1933, so that makes me seventy-four years old.

MA: And what was the name given to you when you were born?

HC: My name that was given to me by my parents was Helen, and my grandmother gave me the name Tayeko. Not Taiko, Tayeko. Tayeko and Harano. So I grew up at home being called Ty-Ty, or Ty, and so it was very strange when I started school and I was "Helen."

MA: So...

HC: Although my parents are Nisei, but to, to help the grandparents, the Isseis, we were almost always called by our Japanese names at home, shortened Japanese names.

<End Segment 1> - Copyright ©2008 Densho and the Topaz Museum. All Rights Reserved.