Densho Digital Archive
Manzanar National Historic Site Collection
Title: Rose Tanaka Interview
Narrator: Rose Tanaka
Interviewer: Alisa Lynch
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada
Date: August 9, 2011
Densho ID: denshovh-trose_2-01-0001
<Begin Segment 1>

AL: Today is the 9th of August, 2011, this is Alisa Lynch from Manzanar National Historic Site doing an interview with Rose Hanawa Tanaka at Main Street Station Hotel. Mark Hachtmann is videographer. Also as observers are Rose's granddaughter, Anda Tanaka, maintenance worker John Kepford, Chris Smiths, he's a park ranger, and Les Inafuku, our superintendent. Rose, just before we start, I wanted to make sure that it's okay that we archive this interview in our site library, use the information for education purposes at Manzanar?

RT: That's fine.

AL: We'll also have you sign a form after the interview. And if it's okay, I'm going to take this piece of paper, only because it...

RT: Rattles.

AL: It'll rattle, yeah. So this oral history is being conducted for the oral history program at Manzanar National Historic Site, and as I said, will be archived in the site library. So do we have your permission to record the interview?

RT: Yes, you do.

AL: Okay. I'd like to start out by asking your full name and when and where you were born.

RT: My full name is Rose Hanawa, maiden name, Tanaka. And I was born on October 11, 1926, in San Luis Obispo, California.

AL: And you said the other day that you were born in the hospital?

RT: Yes. My mother... I was the last of her, actually, six children in all. The first child died while he was in Japan, and so he never, in my mind, existed. But I was the youngest of the five children, surviving children, and they were all home births, being way out in the country. And so my mother, her advanced age, she thought, she was feeling a little uncertain about giving birth, and so she got into a maternity hospital in San Luis Obispo. And so when the time came, I went to San Luis Obispo and had the luxury of being born in a hospital for my mother's sake, too. And so I have to say I was born in San Luis, but I was never a resident there.

AL: Just passing through.

<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 2011 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.