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RP: ...for the Manzanar National Historic Site, we're talking with Ann, Ann...

AS: A-N-N-A.

RP: And the interview is taking place at Ann's residence, which is at 12141 Marshall Avenue.

AS: Street. Marshall Street.

RP: Street? Okay, in Culver City.

AS: Correct.

RP: And the date of the interview is June 9, 2009. The interviewer today is Richard Potashin. The videographer manning the camera is Kirk Peterson, and we'll be discussing Ann's experiences as a former internee at the Manzanar War Relocation Center during World War II. Our interview will be archived in the Park's library. Ann, do I have permission to go ahead and record our interview?

AS: Yes.

RP: Thank you very much for sharing some time with us. Tell us where you were born and what year?

AS: I was born in Los Angeles, California, September 22, 1916.

RP: Tell us what you can recall about your family background, your parents who both came from Japan.

AS: Yes, well, they both came from Japan and my father was here before my mother. He had a business, like I said, in the... Ninth and, Ninth Street Market, which is still there. He was one of the founders of it, and then he went back to Japan and married my mother. He wanted -- and my mother had just graduated... I guess the college, at that time in Japan, women didn't usually go, but she did and she didn't want to, she wanted to come to America. And her parents thought America was pretty barbaric, so they, they... but she got married there. This, I think the mayor or somebody put them together, and her mother, folks disowned her because she was coming to America. I found that out later. Isn't that something? But, 'cause she just graduated college there and she had a lot of places she could... you know. But she was very pretty, too, I understand, but she wanted to come so she was disowned. I found that out later. But after four children she went back and got together with her mother and all. That's how life was. But my father already had an established business here, so he, it was kind of lucky.

RP: What was your father's name?

AS: Matsunosuke Wakamatsu. Got a long name like John's, too.

RP: And where did your father come from in Japan?

AS: Fukushima. Yeah, Fukushima-ken. That's a large -- my mother, too, also from Fukushima-ken.

RP: Do you know your father's village?

AS: Yeah, my father... what was it? Was it Saisho? No, my, was that my mother's, John?

Off Camera voice: Saisho...

AS: Saisho? Kamiji? I don't know, one of them. Put down Saisho. Anyways, it's northern part of Japan, and I guess northern part at least people were pretty well-established. Not too many people came from Fukushima-ken, I noticed. It's the largest prefecture in Japan.

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