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MA: Today is June 18, 2009, and I'm here with Mary Yoshida in Minneapolis, Minnesota. And I'm Megan Asaka, the interviewer, and the cameraperson is Dana Hoshide. So Mary, thank you so much for doing this interview with us.

MY: You're welcome.

MA: I wanted to start by asking you where you were born.

MY: I was born in a small town in, called Central Point, Oregon.

MA: And when were you born?

MY: 1923.

MA: And what was the name given to you at birth? What was your name?

MY: As far as I know, it was Mary.

MA: And your maiden name?

MY: Takao.

MA: Mary Takao?

MY: Uh-huh.

MA: And you told me that your mother passed away when you were very young.

MY: Uh-huh.

MA: Do you know anything about her background or where she was from in Japan?

MY: No, I don't, I should have probably looked it up. I have, I think I have a birth certificate that indicates that, but I'm sorry I didn't come prepared for that. [Laughs]

MA: Oh, no, that's okay. And how old were you when your mother passed away?

MY: My birth date is confusing, but I think I must have been, I'm guessing, around three. Because my youngest sister is two years younger than I am.

MA: So you were very, very young.

MY: Yes, yes, so I don't really remember much about her at all. In fact, my birthday is so confusing because for, what, 'til the war started, I thought I was a year older. Because I had gone by the birth date of 1922, and discovered when I got my birth certificate that I was born in 1923. [Laughs] So I get confused.

MA: So tell me a little bit about your father. Where was, do you know where he was from in Japan, or his story about how he came to the United States?

MY: I don't know too much. He never talked. But he's from Shikoku in Japan where his family is. And he came to the States, they sent him to the States to study at, as I understand it, at the University of Oregon to study English.

MA: So he came over as a student, then.

MY: Yes, evidently, uh-huh. Then he went back and married his arranged bride. And since I have two brothers that were killed in the war in Japan, he must have stayed in Japan after he was married. So I don't really know when he came to the States.

MA: And your brothers who were killed during World War II in Japan, so they were your brothers but you never met them?

MY: I never met them. The only time I discovered that I even had two brothers was when my father got a letter from Japan telling him that his two sons had been killed. And that was the first I had known about it.

MA: And tell me about your siblings. So you had the two brothers in Japan that you didn't know, what about your siblings in the U.S.?

MY: They're all gone except for my younger sister. But I had two older sisters. The oldest one I never did know. But the second one, she was a nurse in Seattle and we kind of kept in touch with her. And then I had a brother here who had polio, so he was in the hospital in Portland most of his younger years. So it took years later, after camp, that we got to know him.

MA: Oh, so he had polio as a child, then?

MY: Uh-huh. That's my understanding. I have no documentation or anything about those.

MA: So it was two older sisters, a brother, and then you and your younger sister?

MY: Yes.

MA: Okay.

MY: And then the two older ones that were killed in the war.

MA: Right, in Japan.

MY: Uh-huh.

MA: And you told me that you were sent to live with an Issei couple, foster parents. When did that happen? How old were you?

MY: I'm guessing I must have been, like, about fifth or sixth grade. Because I remember going to this school in Tolo when I used to take my younger sister with me, we went to school there. So I'm guessing it must have been when I was about fifth or sixth grade that we, my younger sister and I went to live with this foster family.

<End Segment 1> - Copyright ©2009 Densho and the Twin Cities JACL. All Rights Reserved.