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AL: What about your mom's family, you said Sugai?

GW: Sugai, yes. Now, we don't know too much about her family as far as the tree, family tree of hers. We know that she has some relatives still living, and we keep in contact with them. But we don't know how many are left.

AL: Is this back in Japan?

GW: No, here in the States. We don't know any of her relatives back in Japan. In fact, I guess (Woodrow, aka) Woody, when Woody was in the army, our brother Woody, he was able to visit our family, the Wakatsukis in Hiroshima, but he wasn't able to trace any of the Sugais. So I don't even know what prefecture they came from or nothing about Mother's side.

AL: And your mother is Nisei, is that right?

GW: Well, she was born in Hawaii, so I guess you can classify her as a second generation. They were, her family was traveling from Japan, they stopped in Kauai in the harbor there, and I guess that's when she was born, on a boat in Kauai. And then from what I understand is that when they had the San Francisco earthquake in 1906, they were on a boat in a harbor or someplace like that, and they survived from there. And then she moved up to, I guess their family moved up to Spokane.

AL: So when she was born in Hawaii, they weren't living there, they were just passing through?

GW: Yeah, that's what I understand. They didn't work, the family didn't get off and work in anything there.

AL: So what did her family do in Spokane?

GW: I think they were farming. Is that gonna go on it? [Laughs] But I think she was farming, but I know she was going through a nursing school, she was going to become a nurse. I have some pictures of my dad in a baseball uniform. I guess he was playing baseball in Spokane. But my mother had a nursing uniform on, though I don't think she graduated herself.

AL: About how much younger was she than him?

GW: I think about ten years younger. In fact, I think her parents didn't want her to marry Dad, so there was a conflict there.

AL: Why not?

GW: I don't know. I don't know what the thing is. I don't know if they eloped or what, because we don't see any formal wedding pictures of Mom and Dad at all. They could have ran away and got married. Did Jeanne never talk about that, about Mom and Dad getting married?

AL: I've never interviewed her, I've just read the book. And she talks about one of your mother's brothers putting a ladder up, I think she tried to escape several times, and then finally a brother took pity on her and put a ladder up and they ran off. That's what the book says, but it's a book. I don't know if that's...

GW: Well, she's heard more stories than I have, so it's probably true.

AL: What do you think they saw in each other?

GW: I don't know. The only thing I can think of is my father was kind a rake they called him at that time. He's rakish. I think he was more forward because, like I say, he was playing baseball. I don't know... it wasn't professional, like semi-pro baseball. So he's an athlete and popular and probably with the girls or whatever at that time. You might say he's a playboy, I don't know. But at that age when they got married, he wasn't no young chicken or anything like that.

AL: Do you know about when they got married?

GW: No.

AL: And could you tell me the names of your brothers and sisters and approximately -- if you don't know the years they were born, just sort of their ages?

GW: Chronological? Well, the firstborn was Bill, William. Then came Eleanor, and then came Frances, Martha, Lillian... oh, Woody's in there someplace. Woody's after Eleanor. So Woody's the third born, and then there's Martha, Frances, Ray... no, Lillian, then Ray. And then Mae, me, and Jeanne. Did I leave somebody out?

AL: Is that ten?

GW: I don't know.

AL: I mean, you had ten kids in your family?

GW: Yeah. There were four boys and six girls. Is that ten? Okay.

AL: You passed, you passed the test. [Laughs]

GW: You know, as you get older, it's kind of hard to remember everything. That's one of the bad things about life, I guess, when you get older, you can't remember too far back, like what I did last week even. But there are some things that always come up. Like I can still remember my service number, you know, when I was in the service, 4257401. I can never forget that, I don't know why. Something you just can't forget.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2014 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.