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RP: How about your mother? Can you give us her name?

JN: My mother's name was, my mother's maiden name was Murata, Yoso Murata. And she married a Kitagawa, I don't know his, other than his name, who was the father of my older brother and sister. And they married in Japan -- oh, excuse me, they did not marry in Japan, they married in Seattle. I don't really know whether she was a "picture bride" or what, but anyways, they married in Seattle and the two children were born. He was a carpenter as I understood, and he died of tuberculosis, which (was) a prevalent ailment among immigrant families. And especially amongst Japanese. (...) My parents would always talk about, "Oh yes, that family has TB." [Laughs] But anyway, he died, my mother took the two children back to Japan immediately and deposited them with (her) oldest brother, who was now the head of the family, of her family. My older brother was, I think, seven, six or seven and (his) younger sister was like three, very young. And God bless my mother, she was independent as (were) most immigrant peoples. She could not stand the life in Japan, she left the children there and came on her own back to Seattle, on her own. Incredible. There, in Seattle there were many members of the same community from where they came Shiga-ken, and they had these associations, I'm sure. My father said that he knew of my mother's older brother who always used to taunt him and beat him up. But anyway, they met and they married in 1929, and I was their first-born. That was my mother. My mother was a housewife, she did not have any, you know, it was tragic, she had no knowledge of English other than, well, she had some knowledge of English just through osmosis I guess. But she did not have the education that my father had in Japanese or in English. She went through, I think, the sixth grade, or something, she was telling us.

RP: What childhood memories do you have of your mom?

JN: My mother was a dear soul. Let me tell you, the greatest memories I have of my mother -- because my father was out of my life working during the Depression, away from home for so long -- (were the stories) she read to us. There was a book called, it was a monthly magazine that came, Yonen Kurabu, I remember the name, it's crazy as heck that I can remember some of these trivial things. And we would wait for that document to come. Of course, Japanese was my first language, and she would read and they were always these classic stories, like Stevenson's stories. I mean, all the classic stories that I know of, Grimm's Fairy Tales, was written in, (were) published in that book and my mother read it to us in Japanese. And we would, I remember sitting on her lap, me and my brother, and she would read to us these stories. And that was, that's one of my fascinating recalls of my mother. She was indeed a superb -- you know, there's a great book about immigrants, about the Norwegians immigrants, Giants of the Earth, you might remember, and she indeed was a giant. As I speak of her, tears come flowing readily. And I'm not ashamed to talk about my mother. She was a great, great person, yeah.

RP: You had a few other siblings after yourself.

JN: Yes, my younger sister, Mitsuko, Lily Mitsuko and Jessie Yaeko were born in '39 and '41. '41, right before evacuation.

RP: So your father was sending money to the family during the time he was working?

JN: Oh, yes. Well...

RP: That was your sole financial means of support?

JN: It was my father's income.

RP: Mom was busy raising the family.

JN: Yes, right.

RP: Did you have any other relatives in the area that helped?

JN: No. We had no relatives in the States or in Canada. Later we found out that my mother's brother came to, settled in Vancouver and I sought him out years later. I knew his name was Murata, and I called the Canadian Bell Telephone Company and I asked for all the Muratas in Toronto and I called each one of those people. They must have thought I was nuts. [Laughs] Because of the manner in which I introduced myself, I mean, you can imagine what I said to try to get them to understand without hanging up on me. And I did indeed find my, I guess he would be my cousin, yeah. (Narr. note: The Muratas were evacuated from Vancouver by the Canadian government during World War II and they relocated to Toronto.)

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