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RP: This is an oral history for the Manzanar National Historic Site. Today we're talking with Aya Tsurutani.

AT: Right.

RP: And Aya resides at 1204 Ashland Avenue in Santa Monica, California. The date of our interview is, it's February 5, 2010. And we'll be talking with Aya about her experiences as an internee at the Manzanar War Relocation Center during World War II as well as her relocation out of camp, and, with special emphasis on a visit from Ansel Adams in 1943. Our interviewer is Richard Potashin, our videographer is Kirk Peterson, and our interview will be archived in the park's library. Aya, do I have permission to record our interview?

AT: Yes.

RP: Thank you so much. It's a real honor to talk with you again and thanks for sharing your, your experiences with us. Where were you born and what was your birth date?

AT: I was born in San Francisco, California, May 6, 1913.

RP: And what was your given name at birth?

AT: It was Ayako Imai.

RP: Can you spell your last name for us?

AT: I-M-A-I.

RP: Do you know what your first and last name mean in Japanese?

AT: No, actually not. I asked my mother and she said "Ayako" meant morning glory or some -- that's what she told me. I'm not sure. But Imai, it is, it's not like my married name. Like Tsurutani is stork village or stork valley. But Imai, I don't think there is any.

RP: Did you have an English name at all?

AT: Anyone?

RP: Did you have an English name? Did somebody give you an English name?

AT: Well, they gave me Lucy. [Laughs] Which I'm not happy with so, but I used it during school and after I got out I changed it to Aya. So...

RP: So it was a little easier for, for the teachers to pronounce Lucy?

AT: Yeah, oh yes, definitely.

RP: Who named you Lucy?

AT: I think my father did. He gave my younger sisters better names than mine.

RP: Well speaking of your sisters, can you give me their names? Who was the first to come?

AT: Chiyo.

RP: And was she, how old, how much older was she?

AT: I think she's twelve years older than I was. And the next one was Mitsu or Flora and she had an English name, Flora. And she was nine years older than I was. And then the next was Rosa Yae, Y-A-E, and she was six years older than I. And then I had a sister that died in infancy, I think she was maybe five and a half, no, four and a half years older than I was, but I wasn't born so I didn't know her at all. Then I had a brother who was three years older than I was.

RP: What was his name?

AT: They called it Heiyu, which is a Japanese name but it had a meaning. I think he was born during Korean Gappai, I don't know what, well it's a, what's the translation for that. But it's spelled H-E-I-Y-U. I-Y-U and he changed it to Ted, gift of God, he said. And then, oh, then I came in. And my sister Vi, Viola, she was two years younger than I. And Helen Kimi was the youngest and she was four years younger than I.

RP: So, right, you had what, six sisters?

AT: Yeah.

RP: And one brother.

AT: Brother.

RP: He was outnumbered.

AT: He sure was. And he felt it too. [Laughs]

<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 2010 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.