<Begin Segment 7>

AH: When and where were you born? I know you were born in 1925, but what's the exact date, and were you born in a hospital or were you born at home with a midwife? What did you...

WY: Oh, midwife, I think. Our days, we all had midwife. We, we were always born with a midwife, I think, those days. But I don't know whether it was day or night. I never even remember those things.

AH: Now where were you in the order of the siblings?

WY: Number three.

AH: Number three, and do you remember the birth of some of your younger siblings?

WY: Well, I know all of them are about two years, you know, my other brother was two, my brother is two years younger and below that was two years. But I actually don't know the, what year they got, they were born.

AH: You don't know if they had midwives, or at some point they started, your mom started to go to the hospital for...

WY: Maybe, maybe the sixth and seventh one, maybe they went to the hospital, I think.

AH: What was your mom like? What was her personality?

WY: She was very quiet, and, but when she get mad, she really gets mad, you know. But she worked very hard. Those days, when you're in a plantation like that, you're going to try and make a buck here and there. She used to do all kind of work. So, I really respected that lady.

AH: If you sometimes get an image of your mother in your mind from the time when you were a child, what sort of image comes and what sort of story attaches itself to the image? I mean, sometimes, it'll even bring tears to your eyes or give you a sudden flash of emotion. What is that thing that you see with your mom?

WY: I think, but my mom is a, she's a quiet but she was a very strong lady. When she tells us something, tell us do something, we don't do it, she would chase us with a broom and put 'em in the, put us in the chicken coop and things like that. So, my brother and I, sometimes we would fight each other and they would, she would put us in the chicken coop and let us stay there for an hour before we can get out again. Sometimes she would not let us eat because we wouldn't listen to her, you know.

AH: Did she ever have to turn over any of the discipline to your dad?

WY: Sometimes, yeah. She would tell my dad and, you know, but my father didn't scold us that much. He was really nice to us.

AH: So you didn't get corporal punishment from your dad?

WY: No, no.

AH: You were all pretty big guys, too.

WY: Yeah. [Laughs]

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2003 Japanese American National Museum. All Rights Reserved.