<Begin Segment 1>

AL: Today is the 22nd of August, 2012. This is the Manzanar National Historic Site oral history project, we're doing an interview with Colonel Arthur Nishimoto. The interviewer is Alisa Lynch, videographer is Kristen Luetkemeier, and before we begin, we'd like to just confirm that we have your permission to record this interview, to archive it in the Manzanar National Historic Site, and to use the information for educational purposes. Do we have your permission?

AN: Yes, go ahead.

AL: All right. Well, first of all I want to thank you very much for spending some of your day with us. And my first question is I'd like to ask you for your full name and when and where you were born.

AN: My full name is Arthur Keiichi Nishimoto. I was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii.

AL: And what date were you born?

AN: Oh, I'm sorry. August 28, 1923.

AL: Okay. Happy birthday, it's almost your birthday.

AN: Yes, uh-huh. [Laughs]

AL: You said your middle name is Keiichi, how do you spell that?

AN: K-E-I-I-C-H-I. That's my grandfather's name.

AL: What is that, what do the characters translate as, do you know?

AN: I really don't know. The character... I used to know, but I forgot what it means. I can't recall. I remember my mother told me what it stood for, but, of course, there is a meaning to it, like honorable or something like that.

AL: Ichi, I know ichi is "one."

AN: Number one, yeah.

AL: So you're the "number one kei."

AN: Yeah, we'll I was the firstborn anyway in my family.

<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 2012 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.