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_2-01-0006

<Begin Segment 6>

TI: So sports, what about, let's talk a little bit about your siblings. You mentioned your oldest sister who was born in Japan. Who were your other siblings?

TM: Well, I had, there were two, my sister, then I had another two sisters, they were born here but then my folks sent them back to Japan for education. And he also sent two more boys older than me for education. But the two brothers, they passed away during that European flu epidemic in 1918.

TI: Oh, the large, yeah, the large flu.

TM: Yeah. Then my two sisters that went back to Japan, they came back and then they had to start going -- well, they're Kibeis because they were raised in Japan. Born here but went to Japan, and they got their education and they went to school here. Then I got two younger sisters, one's still alive, and then I lost one, then I got one older sister above me. She's the only one alive right now, but the others passed away.

TI: So it sounds like you have two sisters alive right now, one older and one younger.

TM: Yeah, one older and one younger.

TI: And now why were you not sent to Japan?

TM: Well, I was born in 1918, see, and when the, that, there was no time because I lost two brothers during the flu epidemic, that was before I was born even. So he decided not to send any more back. I had another brother and, one more brother, Bill, he passed away about three years ago. And I had two younger sisters, you know, younger than myself, so that was the family.

TI: For your older siblings who went to Japan, who did they live with?

TM: Well, I guess they had the parents, my grandparents.

TI: And do you know what your parents were thinking when they sent your older siblings there? Why did they send them there?

TM: I have no idea. They thought, well, they sent them for education, mainly, you know, when they're born and they send them right away. Then they stayed there until... oh, they got their grammar school education and then they came back. So I had two sisters that came back when they were around sixteen, and they went to school here. Went to, not adult, but that level they had in those days. That was in the mid-'30s, '40s, yeah. And they got their education, grammar school education, and partly, they didn't go to high school, they were a little bit too, it was too hard for 'em, so they just... and then went to grammar school.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright ©2008 Densho and the Watsonville - Santa Cruz JACL. All Rights Reserved.