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RP: Okay, this is an oral history interview for the Manzanar National Historic Site. This afternoon we're talking with Miyo Nagai, and the interview is taking place at her sister's residence at 2718 Hyperion Street, Los Angeles, California. The date is May 10, 2011. The interviewer is Richard Potashin, and the videographer is Kirk Peterson, and also sitting in on our interview this afternoon is Miyo's daughter, Shari, and her son, Dan. And we'll be talking with Miyo about her experiences as an incarceree at the Manzanar War Relocation Center during World War II. Our interview will be archived in the Park's library, and Miyo, do I have permission to go ahead and conduct our interview?
MN: Yes.
RP: Thank you so much for sharing your afternoon with us.
MN: Well, it's our honor. [Laughs] Thank you.
RP: Let's start out with the basic beginning question, where were you born and what year?
MN: San Diego -- actually it was La Jolla, the little, it's basically San Diego, but La Jolla. Pacific Beach, there's a place there, an area, 1925.
RP: And can you give us your full name at birth?
MN: It's just Miyoko Sakai, S-A-K-A-I, and my middle name, I understand, one of my mother's friends, American friends, decided that Japanese names are hard to pronounce, in those days, so she gave each of the daughters, four girls, all flower names. So mine is Violet, my other sister that's passed away, that was working in the hospital, Etchan, Etsuko, hers is Rose, and hers [points off camera] is Lillian, and my older sister -- and then I had another sister, she was, she was in camp for a short while, but she had a, I understand when she was small she had an... oh gosh, they called it sleeping sickness at the time, and it damaged her brain, paralyzed part of it -- her name was Pansy. So we all got flower names. [Laughs]
RP: That's perfect, 'cause you were in the flower business.
MN: Well, and we've always had, my uncle apparently was in the flower business, wholesale growing, and my grandpa, up in the valley here, San Fernando Valley, just this side of, actually it's Carson Valley, but it's just this side of [inaudible], big area there.
RP: What did, do you know what your first and last names mean in Japanese?
MN: My first name is supposed to be, yes, and the letter it's written, the letter, the way, in Japanese it spells, supposed to be, utsukushii means "beautiful," I guess. And now, Nagai, in English it's -- that's Fred's name, my maiden name was Sakai, S-A-K-A-I, okay? But they made it, when you write it, it looks like "snow," and with this little letter it means "eaves," Sakai, S-A-K-A-I. When I got married, I got married to Fred and his name is Nagai. Alright, and that means "long" in Japanese, I mean in English. Yeah.
RP: Let's talk a little bit about your parents. First, your dad, what was his name?
MN: Masao. I'm, I don't know too much about my dad because when I was four months old he was, he passed away. He was killed in an accident. So Sumi would know. She was already ten then.
RP: Where did your dad come from in Japan?
MN: Nagoya.
RP: And he was originally a doctor?
MN: In Japan.
RP: In Japan.
MN: But you can't get a license here, in those days. So he followed other professions, and I understand he worked from ground up. From what I found, he was, he used to work, like, in a chicken, raising chickens. And then a pig ranch, he took care of the pigs in those days. But he passed away early. He passed away, apparently, in his forties. That's when he had, yeah, the accident. So I haven't, only thing I know is I just thought, when I was growing up, everybody doesn't have a father. I mean, you know. But my uncle, he kind of took over, my mother's brother, and he kind of looked after us too, but my mother, she's the one that raised us, all five of us.
<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 2011 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.