Densho Digital Archive
Manzanar National Historic Site Collection
Title: Minoru J. Shibata Interview
Narrator: Minoru J. Shibata
Interviewer: Kristen Luetkemeier
Location: West Los Angeles, California
Date: December 4, 2013
Densho ID: denshovh-sminoru-01-0001

<Begin Segment 1>

KL: This is Kristen Luetkemeier speaking, I'm with the Manzanar oral history project. And today is December the 4th, 2013, and we are in the West Los Angeles United Methodist Church for an interview with Minoru James Shibata, Jim. And Whitney Peterson is operating the camera, and Beth, are you Shibata also? Beth Shibata is also in the room and might talk a little or ask questions. And before we begin, I just want to confirm, Jim, that we do have your permission to be talking to you and to record this and make it available to the public.

MS: Yes, absolutely.

KL: Thank you so much.

MS: Thank your interest for this interview.

KL: Yeah, yeah, we've been talking a little bit already and I think, I'm glad we're doing this. So let's start out just to place you kind of in time. Would you tell us where and in what year you were born?

MS: I was born in 1928 in San Francisco, California, of course. And as far as I know, I lived there until I was about six years old, when we moved to Burbank.

KL: I know you know some things about your parents, so I'll back up a little bit in time and start off by talking about them. Would you tell us, let's start with your father, would you tell us his name?

MS: Yes. My father's name is Kiyoshi Shibata, and as I found out, he first came to this country when he was seventeen years old, from Shizuoka Prefecture, Shimizu City, and further, in a town by the name of Orido, O-R-I-D-O. And he was, like I said, seventeen years old when he first came to this country, and his ship took the route of the northern route, so that it came via Canada down to Washington. And I think that's where he entered this country. And after that, as far as I know, his older brother was already in this country in Utah, and I believe he had a sponsor to this country to meet with his older brother in Utah.

KL: So he planned to arrive and go to Utah?

MS: I believe so. I haven't really spoken to him about this, so I'm just guessing that that's where he ended up when he first arrived in Seattle.

KL: Do you think he did go right away to Utah, or did he stay in Seattle or the West Coast?

MS: I don't recall anything that mentioned about being in Seattle. So like I said, this is my assumption.

KL: What do you know about his life growing up in Orido?

MS: Not too much at all. Unfortunately, I never got to really have a good conversation with him, and it's been very unfortunate.

KL: Do you know what his family's business was or what the sort of, what defined Orido or Shimizu as far as occupations?

MS: I'm afraid not.

KL: But you said he had at least one other brother.

MS: Yes. He comes from a family of three brothers and two sisters.

KL: Did others immigrate?

MS: From what I've heard, his older brother was the one who first came to this country, and he's the one who was already in Utah. And then the other person is his younger brother who... oh, correction. His second older brother came to this country also. He later lived with us in Terminal Island, and his younger brother also came to this country.

KL: Are you able to go through the siblings and their names in birth order, or the ones that you know, anyway?

MS: Okay. The oldest... you know, his older brother was Buntaro.

KL: I might ask you spell, I'll definitely ask to you spell Buntaro.

MS: B as in "baker," B-U-N-T-A-R-O.

KL: And he was the oldest?

MS: He's the oldest. The next older brother was Koichiro, K-O-I-C-H-I-R-O. And his younger brother was Hikota, H-I-K-O-T-A. And I don't remember his sisters' names, but he had two sisters.

KL: Was he the youngest brother? Was he the number four child?

MS: No, he was the third male in the family.

KL: So was it Koichiro and Hikota who also came to the United States?

MS: Yes, correct.

KL: Did your dad come alone?

MS: You know, I don't know in which order they all arrived in this country.

KL: Did he ever talk about what his parents thought of his decision or what role they played in this decision?

MS: I'm afraid not.

KL: And we were looking at pictures earlier, and your dad's portrait, really formal portrait, had a book in it. Do you know anything about his... and we talked about his educational background. Would you share what you know of his education?

MS: Yeah. As far as I know, he graduated from high school, and I don't know any more about his background in education. But I do know that from early, when I was, before my teenage year, I knew that he had, he was already speaking English. And he learned it somewhere, I don't know when he learned it, but he was one of the few Issei persons that was quite fluent in English, at least among the people I knew.

KL: You were talking about the Japanese education system, too, and some of the strengths that you think he gained from that. Would you elaborate on that just for the recording?

MS: Yeah. I always felt that the Japanese high school education was equivalent to a junior college education in this country because of their talent and their knowledge of how to organize, how to conduct meetings, how to make speeches, and in general, how to communicate with others to form communities.

KL: Let's move to your mother. What was her name? Oh, actually, first, do you know what year your dad was born, by any chance, or an approximation?

MS: Not at... I would have to check that, yeah.

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