<Begin Segment 1>

RP: This is an oral history interview for the Manzanar National Historic Site, and this afternoon we're talking with Misako --

MS: Let me get my ear plug on. I have to kind of... I have three tones on there.

RP: We're talking with Misako Shigekawa, and the interview is taking place at the Town and Country Care Facility on 555 East Memory Lane in Santa Ana, California. The date of our interview is June 10, 2009, and Kirk Peterson is manning the camera and our interviewer is Richard Potashin. And we'll be talking with Misako about her experiences as an internee at the Poston War Relocation Center during World War II. Our interview will be archived in the Park's library at Manzanar, and Misako, do I have permission to go ahead and record our interview?

MS: Yes.

RP: Okay, thank you. Thank you so much. We're really honored to be, have a chance to talk to you today. Tell me where and when you were born.

MS: I was born in Los Angeles. My folks lived in La Habra, but those days we, they had, had to go to hospital, whatever, medical, go into L.A.

RP: Were you born in a hospital or at home?

MS: In a hospital, I'm sure. Or it was a, well, was... yes, I guess so 'cause it, I don't remember exactly, but it was in Little Tokyo there.

RP: And what was your birth date?

MS: 1/2/09.

RP: So almost, just a little after New Year's. Day after New Year's.

MS: Yeah.

RP: And what was your given name at birth?

MS: It, well it's, it's Misako, but in my birth certificate it says "Misao," M-I-S-A-O and in character in Japanese it means the same thing. They call me Misa-chan or some people still call me Misao, but when I do my legal things I have to remember that my name should be Misao. In Japanese, you know, you add K-O as a, like a Haru, they say Haru but they say Haruko, and see, so instead of saying Misaoko they made it Misako. It's hard to say Misaoko, Misaoko, so that's why my name is Misako. It's the same in Japanese, the character.

RP: What does your name mean in Japanese?

MS: Oh, it means, like Mary, you know. I'm good and pure, like going to the Bible. That's, my folks named me that. That means, like they name girls Mary. That meant, that's the reason.

RP: Associated with the Mary of the Bible.

MS: Yeah, and that's all... and then my name, so we lived where there were no, very few Japanese people, so when my father told people my name, Misako, they say, "What?" And so he thought he made a mistake in not giving me an English name, so he named my younger brother George for George Washington. He said everybody knows who George Washington was. And my sister was Mary, from the Bible, and then Alice. And at the time Alice, I mean Roosevelt, he had a daughter Alice, so he named my name my sister, that's Isao's wife, Alice. So that, so everybody wouldn't have to, it was so simple to remember their names. [Laughs]

RP: But not your name.

MS: No, I'm the only one has a Japanese name. And my brother, I have another brother named William. He named William after... somebody. Anyway, he picked out common names, so he wouldn't explain, you know? They say, "Misako? Misako? What?" 'Cause it's all Caucasian people. We were the only Japanese in that area, so it was unusual having Japanese names. And our last name Ishii, so it was, that was easy. And I often get teased after I got married to Shigekawa. Somebody says, "How come you picked up on a long name like that?" [Laughs] Go from Ishii to Shigekawa, it's kinda long. When I say Misako Shigekawa they always tease me. I got such a long name now.

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