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RP: Why don't we go ahead and mention your siblings.

TM: Oh.

RP: Maybe by order of age?

TM: Uh-huh. Well the first sister, my older sister, is Chizuko. And then I came in second. And then my next brother was Itsei. And then my third brother, he name was Masazumi. Uh-huh.

RP: And his English name was Michael.

TM: Mike, yeah. I don't know where he picked that up. [Laughs] And then my younger sister's name was Noriko.

RP: And of all your brothers and sisters, who did you feel most close to when you were growing up?

TM: Well, in camp, I was close to my second brother, yeah. Because, well, we were two years' difference in age, yeah.

RP: Itsei?

TM: Itsei, yeah. What a name huh? Itsei.

RP: That's spelled the same way as Issei?

TM: No, Itsei.

RP: Oh, I-T-S-E-I. Okay.

TM: Itsei.

RP: Itsei.

TM: My father has ideas of different things like in names. Like my other brother's name, Masazumi, and...

RP: Can you share with us some of the meanings of those names if you know?

TM: Huh?

RP: Do you know the meanings of, of some of those names?

TM: No. No. I just know the meaning of my own name.

RP: What is it?

TM: Yeah, Takeshi? Means to be strong. [Laughs] Yeah.

RP: Yeah. So would it, would the, was it your father who named the kids or your mother?

TM: Yeah, my father probably named, yeah.

RP: And I don't think we got your mother's name.

TM: My mother's name?

RP: Yeah.

TM: Hide.

RP: Hide.

TM: Uh-huh.

RP: For, short for Hideko?

TM: No. Her name was Hide.

RP: H-I-D-E?

TM: Yeah.

RP: Tell us a little bit about her. What do you remember about Hide, your mother?

TM: Oh, my mother? Well, she grew up in a pretty good family, see. The family was, had a... what do you call it? There were doctors in the family. And so she got, I don't know, she didn't go to high school. She just went to middle school and then... but she never went to work after that. She just lived...

RP: She came over here and started a family?

TM: Well, nineteen... she came here in 1920 or 1921. Uh-huh.

RP: And your, your father at that time was working in Park City?

TM: Yeah. No, I don't know whether it was Park City but one of the coal mines anyway. Uh-huh.

RP: Did, did your parents ever share with you how difficult their early life was in America?

TM: Not too much. Not too much, yeah. Because we grew up pretty... we weren't deprived of anything too much. No, we lived a pretty normal life. But, I know we moved around a lot.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright (c) 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.