Densho Digital Archive
Manzanar National Historic Site Collection
Title: Margaret Saito Interview
Narrator: Margaret Saito
Interviewer: Kirk Peterson
Location: Sacramento, California
Date: December 17, 2009
Densho ID: denshovh-smargaret_2-01-0002

<Begin Segment 2>

KP: So when did your father move from Monrovia to El Centro?

MS: Oh, probably... they got married maybe 1932. And then, well, I guess that's when he was on his own. I'm really not sure because... yeah, I really don't know. But I know I was a baby in El Centro and I do remember family friends even though I was little. We stayed there -- I don't know, we were in La Puente when my sister -- we were both born in El Centro but when we were young we moved to La Puente. And that was closer to where his family, the rest of his family were.

KP: What is your sister's name?

MS: Frances, and it's Frances Misao Lee.

KP: And where was she? She was born in El Centro?

MS: Yes.

KP: What year?

MS: She was born in 1934. So she just had her 75th birthday.

KP: So what do you remember about El Centro? What was your father doing?

MS: He was farming. And there were other Japanese families farming there, too. The only family that I know from the early days was the Kitamura family. And then they eventually went back to Monrovia, too. And I haven't kept in touch but some of them are still there. I know that son took me deep sea fishing one time, off of San Pedro. I just got -- my cousin Helen and I, the one in the picture -- we went deep sea fishing and I got so sick. So I was about maybe fifteen or something like that. But I'll never forget how seasickness is or could be. It was just awful. But it was nice that he even took us but...

KP: Do you remember anything about El Centro? You were pretty young.

MS: I was young. I think it just... it was hot and that's about... and it wasn't very... I don't remember lots of trees and things like that. It just seemed dry and hot. That's about it.

KP: I think that's pretty accurate memory.

MS: Okay, yeah. It probably still is but it has grown a lot because my niece did, when she started with the Department of Youth Authority she started there at El Centro, so she knows how it is.

KP: So then your family moved to...

MS: La Puente. And that's where we were until we were interned.

KP: What do you remember? What's your earliest memories of La Puente?

MS: Well, I remember going, my father enrolled me in first grade when I was five. I should have gone to kindergarten but I don't know. I was in first grade. And I was in the segregated school in La Puente. It was for Mexicans. I don't remember any African Amer... I don't think there were any African Americans in La Puente but there were lots of Mexicans.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2009 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.