<Begin Segment 8>

KL: Do you have a Japanese name?

MM: Yes, I do.

KL: Does it have a, either your Japanese name or your English name --

MM: See, my father's Japanese name is Ikuzo, I-K-U-Z-O, and my mother's name is Sameko in Japanese, so they took the first part of my father and the first part of my mother and put it together and it became Isame.

KL: So they created it.

MM: Yeah. Ikuzo, "I," and Sameko, "same."

KL: Did your siblings' also have special meaning?

MM: Yes, there's Charles Kiyoshi, the oldest, James Minoru, Harry Saburo, Marion Isame, May Kimi, Robert Tamotsu, Earlyn Ayako, and then when the last one came ran out of names, so they named him Donald Clifford. He got two English names.

KL: And he was, was he born in Poston?

MM: No, he was born after camp.

KL: I see.

MM: Yeah.

KL: What about Earlyn? Was she...

MM: She was born in camp. Yeah, she was born in camp.

KL: So you mentioned that when you guys would play at school and stuff, you kind of, you were usually in charge of what was going on. What about within your sibling group? What, what other roles did people have? Or how did you guys relate to each other?

MM: Well, my brothers, we weren't, being in the camp, in the concentration camp those three and a half years, the boys went their, they just went and played with their friends, and ate with their friends. I never saw my brothers.

KL: Do you know the years that they were born? And if you don't it's fine, but, like how old was, how much older than you is Charles?

MM: Well, let's go, start with Harry. Harry is two years older than me, and James is one year difference between Harry and Jim, and one year between Charlie and Jimmy. And then going down, May and I are fifteen months apart, and then I lose it from there.

KL: But you guys were, I mean, you were kids together, you and your brothers and...

MM: Yes.

KL: Mark, did you have questions about time in Salinas or growing up? [To MM] Are there things I've left out about your years in Salinas that you feel like are important to record, or your parents' backgrounds?

MM: I think we covered pretty good. Pretty good, yeah.

KL: It sounds like you had, your responsibilities were in the house and your brothers, you said, had a lot of responsibility outside, to the farm and the property.

MM: Yeah, helping the parents out in the fields, after school and before school. That's why we all have good work ethics, because for, it was a matter of survival. We had to survive, and the only way you could survive is if everybody works together.

KL: Do you think your father ever thought about returning to Japan?

MM: Never.

KL: That was a quick answer. [Laughs]

MM: Although he wanted to go see his family, which he did one time, and that was enough, I guess.

KL: So it was hard, but nonetheless he was pretty committed to life in California.

MM: Oh yeah, yeah. I mean, after all his, all his children are here, and grandchildren. What does he have in Japan? Nothing, not even a place to stay or home.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2014 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.