Densho Digital Archive
Manzanar National Historic Site Collection
Title: Shig Kaseguma Interview
Narrator: Shig Kaseguma
Interviewer: Richard Potashin
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada
Date: November 6, 2007
Densho ID: denshovh-kshig-01-0003

<Begin Segment 3>

RP: So did you live in the Japantown area of Seattle?

SK: Yeah, we're, well, everybody did. I lived on Broadway and Fir and Yesler. There's a triangle. There was a big building there. And only two homes that were on the block. And the Fir Street, we were the only house on Fir, because they came in and butted into Yesler. And (where) we all lived, there were a lot of Japanese stores there, (and a) barbershop. It was self-sufficient. And my mother was always home by herself, running the family. But there were a lot of grocery stores. It was not a problem, she was not a good cook. I remember, she was never a good cook. My dad was a great cook, but she wasn't. And ended up we had six kids.

RP: Wow, can you tell us a little bit about their names and order of their birth?

SK: Yeah, in fact, my oldest sister's name was Yori. She was six years...

RP: Older than you?

SK: And I was next. And my next sister came three years later, and her name was Aiko. And another three years, it kind of gets monotonous, but three years later, my sister Jean was born. And three years later after that, Lois, who is now in town here, too, she was born. And three years later again, my youngest brother, who is here, too, is Kiyoshi, his name is Bob now, but he's in upper New York. And my next sister, Lois, is in Chicago. And Jean and Aiko are also in Chicago. They're all in Chicago, except my brother.

RP: Then your oldest sister, you just mentioned, she passed away last year.

SK: Yeah, she was in Chicago.

RP: She was also in Chicago.

SK: And the fellow that came with us, that was her husband.

RP: Now these, all these siblings who ended up in Chicago, did they relocate from camp to Chicago?

SK: Yeah, see, when I was in the army, my dad and mother were offered a job in Delavan, Wisconsin. In a resort. Lake Lawn Resort. My oldest sister was too old to go with my family, so she went ahead to Chicago. And Aiko, the next sister, (...) she was just about ready to graduate from Seattle high school. So she went about another quarter, I guess, and she graduated, so she joined my sister. And later, the three of the other siblings went together with my parents to Wisconsin. And they finished school in Delavan, Wisconsin. And the fourth girl, I mean, yeah, the fourth girl, Jean, she went to Chicago and joined them after she graduated from high school. And the other two that were left, graduated from Delavan High School and went to University of Wisconsin, both of them. And you want to know more about their history, too?

RP: I think we'll revisit them in a little while.

SK: Okay.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2007 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.