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RP: -- a short oral history interview with Jack, your last name, can you spell it for us, Jack?

MT: Takayanagi, T-A-K-A-Y-A-N-A-G-I.

RP: Okay. And our interview is taking place in the library at the Manzanar National Historic Site. And we're going to be talking just a short time with Jack about some of his experiences at Manzanar as an internee as well as his experiences at Drake University where he relocated to later on. Our interview is, date of the interview is April 23, 2008, the interviewer is Richard Potashin, and this is tape one. And, Jack, thanks for spending a little time. And you were telling me earlier that this was really the first time that you --

MT: Really the first time since the opening of the national center here. We came by one time when we were traveling south, and just drove through Manzanar. That was, nothing was developed then at that time.

RP: So really, essentially, this is the first time you've been back since you left the camp?

MT: That's right, that's sixty-six years ago. Hard to believe, but nevertheless, true.

RP: Well, let's do, share with us a little bit of your family background before you come to camp. Where did you grow up?

MT: I was born in San Jose, California, and that's where I got my early education. Eventually my father took the family and we moved to West Los Angeles, and that's where I went to high school, in West Los Angeles. That's where I graduated high school. And I wanted to, at the time of my graduation I wanted to be an illustrator, so I went to Chouinard Art Institute. But at that time, I had an experience, religious, or people might call spiritual experience, and a calling to ministry, so I dropped out of Chouinard and went to Sacramento State to start my liberal education toward a divinity degree, and that's when the war broke out and that's when all this turmoil began. And so I came back to be with my family, and eventually was evacuated with my family to my mother and dad and my brother to Manzanar.

RP: What was your, what's your birth date?

MT: My birth date is June 28, 1922.

RP: 1922. And how many siblings did you have? You mentioned a brother?

MT: I had three older brothers.

RP: Can you give me their names?

MT: Yes, Harry and George and John. And my name is Jack, and they always said, "You and your brother must be twins," because John and Jack, you know. I said, "No, we're not twins. He's John and I'm Jack." [Laughs]

RP: Where did your dad come from in Japan?

MT: He came from the Saga-ken, Japan.

RP: Can you spell that for us?

MT: Saga, S-A-G-A K-E-N. And however, that was more my mother's residence than his, because he went and, as I understand it, my mother's folks' parents were resort people, and had a hot spring. And he went there passing through, so to speak, he went there, I understand, and got a job, and he stayed there and eventually married my mother. So I'm not exactly sure where his origin was.

RP: So he brought your mother when he came to the United States.

MT: Yes, and he came in 1913. And he came on the Persian-maru, and docked in San Francisco. And my mother was eighteen, my dad was thirty-six.

RP: Whoa.

MT: That was a time in Japanese immigration history, if you recall, that the Japanese men were coming, many were coming to the United States, and many of them later on wanted to have a bride in order to take care of the house somewhat, I guess, so the "picture bride" came. My dad came with a bride.

RP: He brought a bride. [Laughs]

MT: Yeah, though she was very young, but she came with my dad.

RP: Did the discrepancy in age create any problems for that relationship later on?

MT: No. My mother was very obedient to my dad, and so in that sense, it never, as I can understand growing up, we were normal as anybody in the neighborhood we were in and around, growing up in the country. My dad was a farm worker, what he was.

RP: In the San Jose area?

MT: Yeah, he worked in the orchards. My mother usually oversaw the berry farm, usually a lot of these orchards had berry farms, and my mother took care of the berries.

RP: And you lived on this farm?

MT: Yes. The owner would provide us housing of some sort.

RP: Do you remember who the owner was?

MT: Well, one of the owners was Charles Olson.

RP: Charles Olson.

MT: Charlie Olson who hired my dad, and eventually built us a house on the orchard.

RP: So you were there, family was there for quite a while.

MT: Well, we were there for, all through my elementary school.

<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.