Densho Digital Archive
Manzanar National Historic Site Collection
Title: Jun Ogimachi Interview
Narrator: Jun Ogimachi
Interviewer: Richard Potashin
Location: Helendale, California
Date: June 3, 2010
Densho ID: denshovh-ojun-01-0002

<Begin Segment 2>

RP: So what do you think brought your father to America?

JO: I have really no idea because I know that, like it said, he was in the merchant marines, he was doing oiler, oiling on the tanker and things. And then after they married, got married to my mother, I guess they decided to come over here.

RP: Would he have been working for the merchant marine just shortly before he came to America?

JO: Oh, yes.

RP: Would he have been involved with the Russo-Japanese conflict?

JO: I don't think so. So, I don't, I didn't communicate too much with him. I communicated much more with my mother.

RP: Well, let's talk about her. First her name?

JO: Her name is Yasuko and she lived right there... she's not about a mile from where the A-bomb monument is there.

RP: She lived a mile from there?

JO: Yeah. Because I've been through there and I've been through that monument a couple times. She worked in that building that's just a skeleton now but, and she used to tell me, well, I've been to where she is, I've lived in there but the building when I went there, they had not built a church yet. And my brother went there, I don't know, two or three years ago and he says it's a church there now. And there's a big cemetery behind it and all that. And they had a big property at one time but the city came in and then when they rebuilt they needed space for a road and things so they took a lot of it and then they... so it's not as big as it used to be.

RP: Did your mother share with you any other information about her life in Japan before she came to America?

JO: Well, she did teaching over there. I don't know what she was teaching or anything. But since she lived in a church, I think there were about eighteen kids there. Now whether they were all part of the family or not I don't know but... but she said there was about eighteen kids at one time. So I guess they, when they got a certain age they had to leave, even though it was a big church.

RP: Did your parents marry in Japan and then come over together?

JO: Yes, yeah. They were married in Japan and then they came over. I don't know what kind of ship they came over on, but I don't know.

RP: Where did they first settle when they came to America?

JO: Well, naturally they came through San Francisco. And they were up in I don't know what... San Joaquin Valley for a while there. And, I think my sister was born in San Joaquin. My three brothers were born in Los Angeles, down right close to Little Tokyo.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2010 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.