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MN: December 1, 2009. We're with Henry Fukuhara at Brighton Gardens, a skilled nursing home in Yorba Linda. We have in the room Tani Ikeda videotaping, and Dr. Don Hata and Mary Higuchi, and your wife Yoshiko in the room. Henry, you were born on April 25, 1913, to Ichisuke and Ume Sakamoto Fukuhara, both from Hiroshima. Is that correct?

HF: What was the question?

MN: Oh, I'm gonna repeat some of the basics that I have of your life, and if it's not correct, let me know.

HF: All right.

MN: Okay? Now, you were born on April 25, 1913?

HF: Yeah.

MN: To Ichisuke and Ume Sakamoto Fukuhara.

HF: Yes.

MN: They were both from Hiroshima?

HF: Yes.

MN: You believe your father's family were farmers in Hiroshima.

HF: Yes.

MN: Your mother worked at a millinery store in Hiroshima.

HF: Yes.

MN: They were married through a baishakunin.

HF: Well, the wedding was, the get together was arranged by a baishakunin.

MN: Okay.

HF: As far as the wedding, I don't know who did the wedding.

MN: Okay. Now, your father first came to the United States as a bachelor with friends in 1897. Is that the correct year?

HF: Yes.

MN: He did domestic work, and he worked in the fruit orchards in Fresno.

HF: Yes.

MN: Then he probably went back San Francisco, and you said you have a picture of your father in a white coat, like he was working in a hospital or waiting tables.

HF: Yeah.

MN: Then your father came down to southern California, and he grew flowers.

HF: That came after the wedding. After he, his wife came with him to America.

MN: Okay. So did he go to Fruitland?

HF: Who?

MN: Your father as a bachelor.

HF: Yes. He went to Fruitland and he set himself up with a acreage and got, there was a house there, so he took the house and he that got all ready for his wife to come back. When she came back, when she came to the United States, she had a place to go to.

MN: And she came to Fruitland.

HF: Huh? Yes.

MN: And where is that?

HF: Fruitland, there's no place called Fruitland today. At that time, Fruitland was just the name of a place, and it's still Huntington Park.

MN: Okay.

HF: And Huntington Park is a suburb of Los Angeles.

<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 2009 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.