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_2-01-0003

<Begin Segment 3>

KP: So what language did you speak in the house when you grew up?

MS: We always spoke English.

KP: Do you ever... any Japanese at all?

MS: Very rarely. I do know words and I could understand if people are speaking but it really wasn't our first language. Because I know my, I know my mother could read and write Japanese because she has been in... she was in Japan when she was a teenager. So I know she could read and write and her parents, they probably spoke pidgin English in Hawaii but since having never met them I wouldn't even know what that life was like.

[Interruption]

KP: So you grew up speaking English?

MS: Yes.

KP: And what about, was there any... did your family celebrate any of the Japanese holidays?

MS: Yes. We did celebrate New Year's and I know at my grandmother's house they did the pounding of the rice, the shogatsu, the traditional. I do remember that. She was the one who put the water in and there were two men pounding it. She would put the water... so I could recall that. And I do know that it's a time of celebration and of feasting. We didn't really keep that tradition up as much as some other families of another generation. 'Cause most of my friends are Nisei or in high school, so theirs was a little bit different than my life.

KP: Any other Japanese holidays besides New Year's that you remember?

MS: Well, I know we didn't celebrate Girl's Day or Boy's Day. I do know about them and I've just learned about -- I'm in a doll class -- so, but I've known about Girl's Day and Boy's Day from a long time ago but I don't recall celebrating either. And we didn't have any boys so we wouldn't celebrate Boy's Day. But we didn't have dolls to display or anything like that.

KP: Some people went to prefecture picnics. Did you --

MS: Oh yes, we did, too. We went to those Kumamoto picnics and so I do remember that. Even when I was a mother and went to them I took my children. Lisa might have been one and Stephen might have been two. So I've taken them to those picnics. And this is, well, we're just really going ahead but when I got married and had children I lived San Bernardino and my father was in Hacienda Heights so we would go there on weekends and holidays. So then when there were picnics we went, too. My daughter wouldn't remember but I know some of those parents, they marveled that my daughter was walking and just really a busy person because they had children the same age who weren't. So even later in life, I've heard about those people.

KP: When you were young you -- I'm trying to understand -- as you were young you were aware that there was a connection with your family with Japan?

MS: Yes, yes. We do know we are Kumamoto. And since then I've learned that those people are kind of a party loving people. You know, hey, I follow that because I just like to enjoy, too. I think I get it naturally from my grandmother. [Laughs]

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2009 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.