Densho Digital Archive
Manzanar National Historic Site Collection
Title: Art Imagire Interview
Narrator: Art Imagire
Interviewer: Richard Potashin
Location: Denver, Colorado
Date: July 4, 2008
Densho ID: denshovh-iart-01-0001

<Begin Segment 1>

RP: This is an oral history for the Manzanar National Historic Site. Today we're talking with Art Imagire.

AI: Yes.

RP: And the interview's taking place at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Denver, Colorado, room 701. And the date of our interview is July 4, 2008, Independence Day. And we're gonna be talking with Art about his experiences during the wartime which are a little different than most internees. In fact, that Art's family never went to camp. So, we'll emphasize that and frame the conversation with... we'll be talking about his life before and after relocation as well. Our videographer is Kirk Peterson, interviewer is Richard Potashin, and this interview will be archived in the Parks Library at the Manzanar National Historic Site. Art, do I have official permission from you to record our interview?

AI: Yes, you do.

RP: Thank you very much. That's great. A pleasure to have you here at the conference here, along with everybody else. And, like to start our interview by having you share a little bit of information about yourself as well as your family.

AI: Uh-huh.

RP: And, first of all, can you give me your date of birth and where you were born?

AI: Yeah. My date of birth is August 1, 1933.

RP: And where were you born?

AI: Oakland, California.

RP: Uh-huh. And did you have a Japanese name at birth?

AI: Yes, I did. My Japanese name is Isamu and that's I-S-A-M-U. And that was the only name I had until December 7th. And that's when my brother, right after, right after the war started, went to the city hall and had Christian names attached. My brother named me Arthur -- Arthur meaning courage -- and Isamu also means courage. And my brother's name was Takeshi, and that stands for knowledge. And so Robert's supposed to be knowledge so he's Robert Takeshi. I'm Arthur Isamu. I didn't like that name very much. But they used to, at school, they used to call me Sam.

RP: They have a derivation of that --

AI: And sometimes they used to call me, "Little black Sambo." [Laughs] Remember that story?

RP: Yes.

AI: I guess it's outlawed now. You can't talk about that.

RP: Uh-huh.

[Interruption]

RP: Art, we'd like to get a little background on your, your parents.

AI: Oh, yes.

RP: Can you give... let's start first with your father. And can you give me his name?

AI: Yes, I think my father came from Kagoshima, Japan. And I'm not sure whether he came before the, 1900. And I'm not sure exactly when he came. But he, he came, worked, and then went back and got my mother, and came. My father was quite a bit older than my mother actually. My father was born in eighteen-something. 1880, or something like that. And so he was about twenty when he came to the United States and then he was almost thirty when he had me. And, but anyway, my, my mother was also from Kagoshima, Japan. And it was, well, that's, that's, I won't go into that, but anyway, the... they both came over, settled in Alameda, California. And that's where my mother had a, a dress-making school. She was, she was a dress maker and she taught dress making. And, my father did, was in the cleaning business and, and that's... and then in 1925 or '6 or something like that, they moved to Oakland and they had a cleaning and dress-making store in Oakland, and, which is my birthplace. It's on Seventh and Market. Yeah. Which is, right now, it's a freeway. It's, it's gone. But anyway...

RP: What was your father's name, Art?

AI: My father's name was Sunao, S-U-N-A-O, and he picked up an American name of John. My mother's name was Shizu, S-H-I-Z-U. And she latched onto the name of Sue, was given the name Sue.

RP: And what was her maiden name?

AI: Maiden name was Tahara.

RP: Tahara.

AI: T-A-H-A-R-A.

RP: Uh-huh. And you said your father came from Kagoshima area?

AI: Yes, both of 'em, both of 'em came from Kagoshima, yeah.

RP: And, do you, do you know, was there a specific village name, do you recall?

AI: I think the village is Makurazaki, M-A-K-U-R-A-Z-A-K-I. It's a, it's a southern port... it's on the very, it's on the water, and it's famous for its, what they call bonito. It's the dried fish that's caught...

RP: It's a form of tuna?

AI: Yeah. Yeah. So it's famous for that.

RP: So you dried bonito?

AI: Yeah, yeah. You shave it.

RP: Did your father ever share with you some of his stories about growing up in, in Japan, or...

AI: Not really. Not really. In the nineteen... when was that? Oh, about nineteen... it's before I graduated high school and I graduated in '50, so in '48 or something like that, he was on the roof and doing something and he fell off and broke several bones in his body. And while he was recuperating he was ready to come home and at that... right when he was coming home they said, well, we're gonna do one more x-ray. And on his way to x-ray he suffered a massive stroke and was an invalid for the rest of his life. He lived another twenty years after that and my mother took care of him all that time. And my mother was the one that was more or less the brains and the one that controlled the family. It was a very matriarchal situation for us. But, she was more or less the boss and my, and my, my father did whatever she said. [Laughs] So...

RP: And you said that your father went back to Japan?

AI: No, they never did after...

RP: To, to bring your mom back?

AI: Oh, yeah. He, that, he did do that. But I don't recall much of that situation.

RP: Did they... do you know if they married in Japan or...

AI: No, I don't know. I don't know. Fact is, I don't even think we have any wedding pictures of them, as I recall. But there is, this is kind of an interesting side story, but I have a cousin in Japan that, that... his father was my father's brother, and his mother was my mother's sister. So, we're kind of super cousins together because we have the parents of the same lineage on both sides.

<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.