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RP: This is an oral history for the Manzanar National Historic Site, and today we're talking with Fumiko Shimada. The interview is taking place at the United Methodist Church in Sacramento, California, the gymnasium of the church. The date of the interview is October 17, 2008. Our interviewer is Richard Potashin and our videographer is Kirk Peterson. We'll be discussing Mrs. Shimada's experiences and those of her family during World War II with specific emphasis on the firing of her father from his railroad job and the effort that led up to eventual redress for railroad and mine workers in 1998. Our interview will be cataloged at the Manzanar National Historic Site library. And Fumie, do I have your permission to proceed with our interview?

FS: Yes.

RP: Thank you so much for sharing some time with us on a very special topic, one that's sort of been hidden sort of in the bushes for a while. But first of all, can you give us a little background on your family, starting with yourself? And the date of birth and where you were born?

FS: I was born in Sparks, Nevada, the tenth of ten children, of only which six survived. I had three brothers and there were three girls in the family. I was born July 7 of 1939. I was delivered at home by a doctor, and I was a two-pound baby, a premature baby, along with my oldest brother. And four of the babies that were deceased were all premature babies. My mother and father came from Japan. My father worked for Southern Pacific Railroad, and my mother was a housewife until the war, when she had to go to work to help support the family when my father was fired. My grandparents settled in Utah, and my father was living in Utah and then he went to Japan and brought my mother back in Utah, and then he was offered a job with the railroad if he would move to Sparks. So my grandfather was a masseuse, and he used to give massages to the railroad bosses. And, of course, he couldn't accept money because he wasn't licensed in the United States, so they asked him how they could pay him back, and he says, "If you'll give my son a job." So they said, "Well, if he'll move to Sparks, we can make it work for the railroad." Well, at the time he came, there was a Wildcat strike going on with the railroad. And so he was living in the machine shop, he never left the building, because of the Wildcat strike going outside. And then he called my -- he wrote my uncle, and he said, "If you want a job, I can get you a job with the railroad." So my uncle also moved to Sparks, and my mother was pregnant with my oldest brother, so she had to stay behind until she had the baby, and then she joined my father in Sparks. But my uncle and father lived in the railroad building, in the machine shop, duration of the Wildcat strike.

RP: And how long did that strike last?

FS: I'm not sure. But at the time, verbally, the bosses said, "If you work for us during the strike, we'll guarantee you a lifetime employment. Of course, that was an oral agreement, during 1944 -- excuse me, 1942, he was fired from the railroad. So it didn't have any bearing on him. But after the war, his boss came and asked him to return to work, so he went to work the next day. So it was a government firing.

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