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KL: Let's back up, actually, and would you tell us your father's name?
UN: His name is Steven Ujio, or it's Ujio Steven Niwa, U-J-I-O.
KL: U-J-I-O.
UN: Yeah.
KL: And what was his family background?
UN: His father was the regional judge in Japan at one time. And he was, he became a Christian, and he walked away from being the regional judge and became a Christian minister. And my mother's, my father's mother was also a Christian, and so when my father was growing up, he was sent to the Benfords', they were a Brethren Society minister in Japan, and he was sent to the Benfords' to be a schoolboy. And so my father was indoctrinated in Christianity.
KL: Do you know anything about what caused his conversion to Christianity, what appealed to him or why he decided to?
UN: Well, it's just like I'm a Christian because my mom and dad were Christians. And since his dad and mother were Christians, he became Christian. And at the time, Christianity more or less was introduced to the upper class people in Japan. They had contact with the Caucasians, so naturally they talked to the Caucasian people and were, they were introduced into Christianity. And so, but my father... let's see. He had... after he graduated from high school, he went to... let's see, a college that was sponsored by the emperor of Japan. And I can't think of the emperor's name.
KL: I had something I missed, too. It was Ujio, your father, who went to the Benford School, is that right?
UN: Yeah, went to Benfords' to be a schoolboy. And the Benfords treated him like their own son. And just prior, about two years before World War II, the U.S. government asked the Benfords, they said the relationship with Japan is getting very poor, so they forced the Benfords to come back to United States. And, of course, by then, my father was over here. And as soon as he found out that the Benfords were in Pasadena, he took our whole family to see the Benfords. And that's when the Benfords, I met the Benfords, and for the first time, I was about eleven years old, and they treated my brother and I like their grandchildren, you know. And in fact, after I got my degree in Manzanar, my folks wrote to the Benfords and said, "What college would you recommend," for myself? And the Benfords helped locate the college for my advanced degree, or my college degree.
KL: Were they still in Pasadena at that time?
UN: Yes.
KL: Did your parents talk with them other times in the '40s?
UN: Oh, yes, oh, yes. They were like part of the family.
KL: Where did your dad grow up?
UN: In Tokyo.
KL: You said his father was a regional judge?
UN: Yes.
KL: Where was that?
UN: In northern Japan.
KL: Do you know that grandfather's name?
UN: I had it down, but I can't recall it. [Laughs]
KL: You can send it, it's fine, no worries. Did your mom ever talk about Ueda, what that town was like where she grew up?
UN: This year I was supposed go to Ueda to see... I started writing to people trying to find out exactly where they were located, and I couldn't find that, it's been too long ago. And so I decided not to go to Japan to investigate where my mother grew up and where she went to school and whatnot.
KL: What was her religious background? Was she Christian in Japan also?
UN: They were Buddhists in Japan, and but when, as soon as she came to America, she started going to a Christian church. And then she married a Christian, and the rest of her life she was going to Christian church.
KL: Did you say she sang in the choir at that church?
UN: Yes.
KL: What else did she like to do as a...
UN: She was president of the women's society, UMW, United Methodist Women. And she went to retreats, and also, backing up the story a little bit, after my father and mother married, they went to, they left San Francisco and came down to Santa Barbara, and that's where I was born. And then from there they went to Los Angeles.
KL: The government records for Manzanar state that you were born in 1926, does that sound about right?
UN: That's right, yes.
KL: And they were living in Santa Barbara?
UN: Yes.
KL: Why did they make the move?
UN: I don't know why exactly, but it could be because he was a regional manager for the Japanese newspaper, and he had to go to different communities to check up on the distribution of the Japanese newspaper.
KL: What the newspaper's title? Was it the Nichi Bei or something smaller?
UN: Yeah, I think it's something Nichi Bei or something like that. And then eventually he worked for Rafu Shimpo, and he was the regional manager there. And then he got ulcers, and so the doctor told him that unless he quit that job, it's gonna kill him. And so he was in bed for, like, a year trying to get rid of his ulcers. In that interim, my mother decided that she had to work, and so she became a Japanese school teacher in Sawtelle, or West Los Angeles. And so we all moved to West L.A. and Mom became a Japanese school teacher.
KL: Were there other, did you have siblings by this point?
UN: Yeah, my brother. I had just one brother, and his name was Ujiaki Niwa.
KL: Would you spell it?
UN: U-J-I-A-K-I. And he was born November 9, 1927.
<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2013 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.