Densho Digital Archive
Manzanar National Historic Site Collection
Title: Tom Ikkanda Interview
Narrator: Tom Ikkanda
Interviewer: Richard Potashin
Location: Los Angeles, California
Date: July 18, 2008
Densho ID: denshovh-itom-01-0001

<Begin Segment 1>

RP: This is an oral history for the Manzanar National Historic Site, and we're talking with Tom Ikkanda. Our interview is taking place at the same address as Dorothy's interview, same folks involved. And Tom, can you give me your date of birth?

TI: It's August 22, 1917.

RP: 1917. And where were you born?

TI: Los Angeles.

RP: Los Angeles? Do you remember what part of L.A.?

TI: It's down on, the cemetery down on Washington Boulevard. It was just south of that. I guess it was considered the outskirts of Los Angeles.

RP: At that time.

TI: The western end.

RP: The western end?

TI: Yeah.

RP: And did you have a Japanese name?

TI: Yeah, Shoso.

RP: Shoso? S-H-O-S-O?

TI: Right.

RP: And did you have brothers and sisters, Tom?

TI: Just brothers. I have a younger brother named Ben, and then the next down the line, John and Hiroshi, they were twins. So there was four of us all together.

RP: Four of you. And your father, where did he come from in Japan?

TI: Oh, he was from Hiroshima.

RP: And what was his name?

TI: Kenso. But my grandfather was the first one to come here.

RP: And, and what brought him here?

TI: Oh, at that time, we read in the paper how he used to find gold alongside the road, so he wanted to get in on that gold. So this is back in, I guess, the early part of 1900. So he came here to Long Beach, and he worked as a, just kind of a home, like a gardener service. And then about that time, my dad, who was born in Japan, graduated from high school over there. So he came here and went to high school in Long Beach, he went to Long Beach Poly. And later on, after he graduated from there, he went into the nursery business.

RP: In Long Beach?

TI: In Los Angeles.

RP: Oh, Los Angeles.

TI: Yeah. And about that time, he called my mother over, we got married, and then I was born in 1917.

RP: 1917. Your mom was also from Hiroshima?

TI: Yes. Well, they were, went to school together, apparently, in Japan.

RP: In Japan? So they were already, their marriage was already arranged quite a while ago.

TI: Sort of, yeah.

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