<Begin Segment 2>

KP: So do you know when and how he met your mother?

TF: I've never really asked them. I know that my mother came from Kumamoto, the same place as he did, and that my language barrier with my mother is the same, because my mother didn't have much of an education, maybe just part of grammar school in those days.

KP: Do you know if it was an arranged marriage?

TF: I don't know, never asked. So it could be anything, but to me, those things weren't really important.

KP: And do you know how your father got to California, what brought him to California?

TF: Here again, when my mother died in 1953, a gentleman from northern Utah came to the house because he saw the name Fukushima, my mother dying, and the name Buntaro Fukushima, and he knew a Buntaro Fukushima when he worked on the railroad also. But he spoke English, so he was the, more the boss man or the recruiter or whatever you would call it. And he came over and they knew each other, and so he was the same one. And the only thing I can remember him saying is that he's surprised that he's still living because of the way he used to drink. He thought he'd be gone a long time ago. But his longevity is a little different, because technically he retired at the age of eighty-one.

KP: Your father?

TF: Yeah.

KP: And what was your father's name?

TF: Buntaro.

KP: Could you spell that?

TF: B-U-N-T-A-R-O.

KP: And your mother's name?

TF: Maru, M-A-R-U. Her maiden name is Tateyama, T-A-T-E-Y-A-M-A.

KP: So no real idea of how your parents met or how they got to California?

TF: Yeah. Well, I was never in a position to be that curious, and if I was, I wouldn't be able to get the right words across.

KP: So do you know about what time they got married? What was your oldest, you had brothers and sisters?

TF: Yeah, my sister is ninety years old, and so...

KP: And what was her name and what year was she born?

TF: Her name was Fumiko, F-U-M-I-K-O. And she's, since I'm eighty-five, she'll be ninety-one this year.

KP: She was born in 1920?

TF: If I'm '26, brother's '24, other brother's '22, she'd be '20.

KP: So your next brother that was born in 1922, what was his name?

TF: Hikaru, Jim. H-I-K-A-R-U, and Jim is James from when he was, took up Catholicism.

KP: And your next brother?

TF: Tadashi, T-A-D-A-S-H-I, no English name.

KP: And then you?

TF: My name is Taira, T-A-I-R-A, no middle name, but I've been called a lot of stuff, too. [Laughs]

KP: So your, only James got an Anglo name?

TF: Yes. He's the only one that's been Baptized.

KP: And when was he Baptized? A long time ago?

TF: Well, it was right after the war, or right before the war, because there was a Catholic priest in Manzanar that I got to know real well. I hate to tell you that when I was young, I guess I wasn't very attentive, because I just don't know those dates.

KP: That's fine.

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