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RP: Let's talk a little bit about your parents. Your father's name?

SK: Was Masao Sakai. They gave him a, Fred, F-R-E-D. Fred. Mrs. Scripps and Mrs. Spalding, they, I think Mrs. Spalding was the one that gave him the name Fred. 'Cause Fred's name was, his name was Masao, so they gave him Fred. They called him Fred.

RP: And can you share with us what you know about his family background in Japan?

SK: Well, the best, I was there after I graduated high school, for a couple years. I mean, I had to come back because the war... anyway, they had a hospital in Japan. My grandpa, which was my father's father, he had a hospital there. He was a well-known doctor in children, was a pediatric. It was in Nagoya, that's where he had a hospital. And matter of fact, I was there after, well, before the war, and it was a nice little hospital there. And then in the back, for the children and people to, when they're waiting, what do you call that, not to regale themselves but to have fun. There were little birds there, little cages of little monkeys, and there were cages of something else I forget. It was about six little cages there. It was little animals in there. And there was always, there was two people attending those cages, watching so everything was clean. He was very, my grandpa was very particular. But the little kids running around, they were the patient's family. But it was nice.

RP: And so your father sort of followed in your, his dad's footsteps.

SK: Yes, but then they wanted him to, the reason he came to America was he didn't want to marry this one girl that they want -- well, Japan, you know how it is. They want, one family wanted him to marry this, her family, doctor's daughter and so and so, but he didn't like the girl, so he came to America. He's the only one that came to America. [Laughs]

RP: Of his family.

SK: Of the family. They're all back in Japan. They're all well to do back there. I know he struggled here. [Laughs] Yeah.

RP: He wasn't the oldest son, was he?

SK: No, he was, no, he was not. He was, he must've been about the third from the bottom, I think. I think there were, there were five, I think. No, I don't know how many, must've been five or six brothers and sisters all together. Yeah, must've been six in the family. I'm not, I'm just guessing.

RP: And what do you remember most about your dad in terms of his personality and demeanor?

SK: My father? Well, he helped everybody. And I don't know what he was really doing. He graduated as a, being a medical doctor, but in those days, America, you have to have a license and all that. But he was helping the Indian village. There was a poor Indian village in San Diego and he used to go there, and I don't know what he did, just helping the people, I guess. He learned his English from the Spaldings, Mr. and Mrs. Albert Spalding in Point Loma. That's how he learned his English.

RP: Is that the Spaldings of sporting goods?

SK: Yes, yes. Matter of fact, I have a tennis racket and something with that, this old fashioned tennis racket somewhere, in a trunk somewhere.

RP: So did he work for them as a houseboy?

SK: Yeah, that's how he learned his English. And then over there -- course I've never been there -- well, as I remember, what do you call that, they were building fences around that, it's not a cave, they're all... I don't know how to say it, but anyway, they were making fences out of these woods, these branches of big woods. They were, well, it's like a cave but it's not a cave, anyway, he, I know he was trying to, well, he did help them, I think, just to, what would you call it... you have a hand in making, helping, holding the woods and this and that. There's a picture of it somewhere.

RP: For the Spaldings?

SK: No, this was at the big... yeah, that was when he was living at the Spaldings. It's over in Point Loma. That place must be still there, though. It looks like a cave, but it's not a cave. I always wanted to go back there to see that place again. One of these days I want to, before I go. [Laughs]

RP: Your mother, mother's name?

SK: My mother came with my grandmother. I don't know what year. It was the year -- but in those days everybody had to come through San Francisco.

RP: She was about sixteen?

SK: She was, yes, she was still young, I think around fifteen, sixteen, around there.

RP: And she came just with her grandmother?

SK: Grandpa was here before that, and then they're waiting for Grandpa to send the money back to Japan, but Grandpa, people borrow money, so Grandpa was a fellow that, "You want money? Okay, here it is. Here, you take it." So towards the end he didn't have any money, so Grandma waited and waited, so finally she came on her own with my mother and her brother, which was my uncle.

RP: And his name?

SK: My grandfather?

RP: The uncle?

SK: My uncle was Kawakami.

RP: His first name?

SK: They were, what's it called, Kiuye, K-I-U-Y-E.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright &copy; 2011 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.