<Begin Segment 2>

RP: Let's talk a little more about his background before he came to America.

TM: Oh.

RP: First of all, can you, can you give us his full name?

TM: Yeah. Teizo. T-E-I-Z-O. Minato.

RP: Minato. And he never took and English name?

TM: Well, I guess he... all these Issei, they took a, an American English name and they, they used to call him Frank.

RP: Where in Japan was your father from?

TM: What the heck? I can't... there's a lot of things that don't come to my mind right away.

RP: Wakayama?

TM: Yeah, it's Wakayama. Oh, Shimozato. Shimozato, Wakayama.

RP: Shimazato would be the village?

TM: Yeah, right.

RP: O-S-H-I-M-A? Oshima?

TM: Yeah. Shimo.

RP: Shimo. Oh, O.

TM: Yeah, Shimozato, Z-A-T-O.

RP: Z-A-T-O. Uh-huh. Do you know much about your father's life in Japan?

TM: Not too much. When he was eighteen years old, he, I think he said he went to Osaka and he became a wireless telegraph operator. Then he decided to come to America.

RP: Was he the oldest son in the family?

TM: No, no, he had, they had a big family. There were about ten in the family.

RP: So he, he had no chances of inheriting any land or family possessions, so maybe that affected...

TM: Yeah. But as far as the possession, he was adopted by a family, another Minato family, and he had a house in Japan. But he, we know, we never went back at that time, but he had this house in Japan in Shimozato. Yeah.

RP: Do you know if he had much education in Japan? Did he make it through high school?

TM: No, I don't think so. Yeah, he was a self-educated man. Spoke pretty good English, yeah.

RP: Did he, did he acquire his English skills in this country?

TM: Yeah. After he came here, yeah.

RP: What do you remember most about your father?

TM: What do I remember about him? Well, he was a low-key, mild, quiet man, yeah.

RP: That, that classic Issei stoic kind of person?

TM: Yeah. [Laughs]

RP: Never really showed much emotion?

TM: No, that's right, yeah. Because I remember I only got scolded one time in my life.

RP: What was that for?

TM: I came... I was about a third grader, I guess, and I came home and we lived in a house and I guess I was kinda lazy and we put... it was a rainy day and instead of walking over to the corner to put my umbrella away, I threw the umbrella and broke a window. [Laughs] That's the only time he got angry, yeah, for being lazy.

RP: Did your father have a, a creative side to him? Did he, did he work with art at all or did he have any hobbies that you recall?

TM: Well, he, like the Isseis get together, he would sing and dance and, he did a lot of different things. He, well, he wasn't much involved with Shimozato. He was very involved with my mother's side which was Esumi, Esumi-mura. And he was secretary of the club and things like that. He was very involved, yeah.

RP: That would be the prefectural organization?

TM: Yeah, uh-huh. Yeah.

RP: In the United States?

TM: Yeah, uh-huh.

RP: Uh-huh.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright (c) 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.