Densho Digital Archive
Watsonville - Santa Cruz JACL Collection
Title: Tom I. Mine Interview
Narrator: Tom I. Mine
Location: Watsonville, California
Date: July 29, 2008
Densho ID: denshovh-mtom_2-01-0002

<Begin Segment 2>

TI: So tell me a little bit about your, first your father. Do you remember his name?

TM: It's Isekiji, Isekiji.

TI: Okay. And do you know where in Japan he was from?

TM: Fukuoka-ken.

TI: Tell me a little bit about what his family did in Japan.

TM: That I don't know. I think they were just, I never did ask my folks.

TI: And do you know why he came to the United States?

TM: Well, like all these Issei people, they came to United States to try to make enough money, so actually make enough money to go back to Japan. That was their, that's what my father was, normally say, used to say.

TI: And then your mother was...

TM: She, they were, well, they were married in Japan, and she came later, after my father arrived first.

TI: Okay, and so I'm guessing she's also from Fukuoka.

TM: Yes.

TI: And you said they were married in Japan. Did they have any children in Japan?

TM: One. It was my sister, she's passed away, it's Kizuka.

TI: Kizuka, okay, Kizuka. And then they, your father first came to the United States.

TM: Yeah, he came first.

TI: And where in the United States did he come?

TM: I think he came to Seattle or someplace over there, and then gradually worked his way down to Watsonville.

TI: And then what, when did your mother join your father?

TM: That I never did ask. A year later, I don't know exactly, but she came later on after my father settled down.

TI: So when they got settled in Watsonville, what kind of work did your parents do?

TM: Well, he used to tell me in the wintertime he used to chop lumber, I mean, work for somebody. You know, they, in those days, they all kept busy, so he was a laborer, mostly common laborer.

TI: And how about your mother? What did she do?

TM: Well, I never did ask her, but she was just a laborer, too, they helped one another, tried to make a living.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright ©2008 Densho and the Watsonville - Santa Cruz JACL. All Rights Reserved.