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KL: Okay, let me back up then. So your parents, your mother came back to the United States, or came to the United States and joined your dad in 1921?

AO: Uh-huh.

KL: And then who were the other children in your family?

AO: Okay, Toshi, T-O-S-H-I, was born in 1923.

KL: She had no "ko," she was just Toshi?

AO: Yeah. And then I was next, '26.

KL: And when you were born, what was your full name?

AO: Akiko.

KL: Did you have a middle name?

AO: No. Actually, between Toshi and me, there would have been a boy. I don't know how far along in pregnancy, but pretty far. And this is one of the reasons why we moved to Cienega, because my sister ran out into the street, and my mother ran after her and fell, and it caused her to abort, and it was a stillborn. Would have been a boy.

KL: Did she talk about him? How did you know about that pregnancy?

AO: I guess she told us. I don't know, but we knew that there was a grave for Tamotsu. So she was almost full term when she did, fell, I think. But when the baby was born, it was stillborn. And so that's when she insisted that... and then when I came along, she said she just didn't want to take the chance of another child running out in the street.

KL: And you were born in Gilroy?

AO: I was born in Gilroy, then when I was nine months old... and then next...

KL: What is your name, Akiko, is there a meaning behind that?

AO: Yes. Many girls whose names are Aki, it's because they were born in fall, and aki is the fall. And I was born in fall, but mine means "crystal."

KL: Why did they give you that name?

AO: I don't know. But I guess because it sounded like the fall, because aki, but she wanted to give a little better connotation to it. And then she had Sumi. Sumi was born in probably, I don't know whether late '27 or '28, I'm not sure when her birthday was. And then Kazuye, K-A-Z-U-Y-E, was born in '29. And then Atsuko was born in '34. But Sumi died at the age of three with appendicitis.

KL: And your dad, how did your dad feel about the move to Cienega?

AO: Pardon?

KL: How did your father feel about the move?

AO: Oh, well, he was all for it because he found some farmland.

KL: Did he like farming, do you think?

AO: I don't know, but he had been working for the store in Gilroy, and I don't think he's too keen on that.

KL: What was the store?

AO: It was just a general, you know, carrying Japanese goods and whatever anybody, the Japanese community needed.

KL: Do you know the business's name?

AO: No, I don't. I just know the family who had it, ran it, Kobara. And they moved down south, and I don't know, to El Centro or somewhere like that, and that's where my father would stay when he made his trips down south.

KL: And that wasn't a job he was really excited about?

AO: I think probably it was meeting all the people that came in the store. I'm not sure what he did then either, or whether he was doing other work too.

KL: Was he very social?

AO: Yes, he was. People gathered around him and looked to him for some leadership type of thing. He had a fairly imposing demeanor. Friendly, and I worshipped him. Because we were a family of all girls there, and I wanted to be that boy, so I would try to do everything that I could to make him think that I could fill that spot.

KL: Do you think he wanted that?

AO: Oh, he was wanting a boy, that's why they had that last pregnancy. But it wasn't a boy. In fact, they had a name, a boy's name picked out for the baby, and then it turned out to be another girl, so they just changed it to a ko, that's Atsuko, A-T-S-U-K-O. it was going to be Atsushi.

KL: Atsushi? What's the meaning of that name?

AO: I don't know whether it's the same character that they would have used. I can't remember the character now. I've forgotten so much of my Japanese.

KL: How was he with you? You said you worshipped him.

AO: Well, he treated all of us kids the same. He was a good father, I think. He didn't... well, he played with us, and he would sit and carve, whittle stuff for us, like whistles and do things like that, and then I remember at night he'd have a fire in the fireplace, so he would sit and peel an apple, give us the slices.

KL: Could he do that thing where it came off in one?

AO: He probably could. I mean, he was very adept.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2013 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.