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KL: This is Kristen Luetkemeier from the Manzanar Oral History Project, here for an interview with Aki Okuno. Today, I think, is Thursday, January 31, 2013. We're here in Aki's home in Saratoga, California, and Alisa Lynch is also in the room operating the video camera. And we're going to be talking today about Aki's experiences growing up in Gilroy and then being in Poston, at Temple University, and then your career and family life afterwards. So, Aki, this interview is going to be archived in the library at Manzanar, and it will be available to the public. Do I have your permission to go ahead and record the interview?

AO: Yes, you have my permission.

KL: Okay, I appreciate it. I want to talk first about your family that you grew up in and your parents and what you know of their background. So let's start with your father. Who was your father?

AO: My father was Tsutomu Awaya, T-S-U-T-O-M-U, A-W-A-Y-A. I was born in Gilroy, California, and when I was about nine months old, we moved to a community called Cienega, C-I-E-N-E-G-A. My mother thought that living in a city, which Gilroy definitely was not at that time, but to her, it seemed that way, it would be difficult for children.

KL: Where was your mother from? What was her name?

AO: Oh, my mother's name was Sadae Hatsuku, S-A-D-A-E, her maiden name H-A-T-S-U-K-U.

KL: And was she from Japan?

AO: Yes. My father was from Usuki, which is in Oita Prefecture in Kyushu, and my mother was also from Oita Prefecture, from a little village called Sugao, S-U-G-A-O.

KL: How did they meet each other?

AO: Someone who knew my mother knew my father, and introduced them. And I guess they took to each other and they got married.

KL: They met in Japan?

AO: In Japan, yes. My mother was a teacher at that time. And so he had been in America, and had gone back to Japan to, I guess, get a wife.

KL: Around when were they born?

AO: My father was born in 1885 and my mother in 1894.

KL: And you said she was a teacher?

AO: Yes.

KL: What did she teach?

AO: She was teaching, I think, like about second grade.

KL: So what was her education like?

AO: She was educated... it probably was not a university, but what they call normal school, it's further education, which enabled her to become a teacher.

KL: Do you know anything about what... was it a public school that she taught in, or what the school, or who her students were?

AO: That I don't know, but I know that subsequently on one of our visits to Japan, I met a cousin, I don't know how much removed, who was a student of my mother's.

KL: Do you think it was typical for most people to be able to go to elementary school at that time?

AO: I think education... education I think has always been very important in the lives of the Japanese. And so my mother was supposedly rather sickly, and she was protected by her parents because she was supposed to be sickly, but she did everything, tried. And I remember her saying that in order to strengthen herself, she would get up early in the morning in the wintertime and go outside and bathe herself and exercise in the cold.

KL: She sounds really disciplined.

AO: Just the thought of it... yes.

KL: Did she have siblings?

AO: Yes, she did, and I just knew of one brother.

KL: Why did you know of him?

AO: Pardon?

KL: Why did you know about him?

AO: I met him. He was the one uncle I did meet, so he and his wife had two girls that we met. I'm not sure about the boys.

<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 2013 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.