Densho Digital Archive
Manzanar National Historic Site Collection
Title: Carol Hirabara Hironaka Interview
Narrator: Carol Hirabara Hironaka
Interviewer: Richard Potashin
Location: Sacramento, California
Date: October 18, 2008
Densho ID: denshovh-hcarol-01-0001

<Begin Segment 1>

RP: This is an oral history interview for the Manzanar National Historic Site. And today we're talking with Carol Hironaka, and our interview's taking place at the Japanese United Methodist Church on, at 6929 Franklin Boulevard in Sacramento. The date of our interview is October 18, 2008. The interviewer is Richard Potashin, our camera guy is Kirk Peterson. We'll be talking with Carol today about her experiences at the Manzanar War Relocation Center during World War II, and also her life experiences before and after camp. Our interview will be archived in the park's library at Manzanar National Historic Site. And Carol, do I have permission to go ahead and conduct our interview?

CH: Yes.

RP: Thank you very much for sharing your afternoon with us. I'd like to start by getting a little more of a, sort of a little more of a, sort of a picture of you in your family and growing up in the Florin area. Well, let's start with the first obvious question, which is your birth date.

CH: It's January 25, 1925.

RP: And your place of birth?

CH: Florin, California.

RP: And you had a Japanese name.

CH: My Japanese name is Michiko.

RP: And can you tell us, if you do know, the meaning behind your first and last name?

CH: I think it's probably meant to be "Christian road," a path, more or less.

RP: And your maiden name was?

CH: Hirabara. If you want to say it correctly, it's "Hirabara."

RP: Hirabara.

CH: Yes.

RP: Does that have a special meaning as well?

CH: Well, it's kind of a valley, vast valley, yes.

RP: Oh, that's what Sacramento is.

CH: Yeah. [Laughs] We came to the right place, I guess, my grandfather and my father.

[Interruption]

RP: Carol, if you can recall, were you delivered at home?

CH: Yes. My father had to drive to Elk Grove to get this doctor, and I keep forgetting the name, and he came and delivered me at home.

RP: I heard there was also some, several midwives around here?

CH: Yeah, there were a couple of midwives. I know maybe they were there later, but I don't know if there were any.

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