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TI: So let's talk a little bit about your mother. Tell me your mother's name and where she was born.

LI: Her name is Sakaye Fujihara, and she was born in 1909. (...)

TI: Yeah, so about twelve years' difference.

LI: Twelve years, right.

TI: And do you know the type of work her family did, I guess first in Japan, because they also moved to America, but...

LI: Oh, my grandfather on my mother's side went to New York for some reason or the other, but my mother stayed with her mother (...). No, no, her mother, and she had a silkworm farm or something. And I don't know whether she did it at a farm or in the house, I don't know how that goes.

TI: And this was in Kyoto?

LI: Kyoto, right.

TI: So silk farm, and interesting, your grandfather went to New York, which is not common.

LI: Yes, very unusual, that's right. I don't know why he did.

TI: Do you think it was business related of some type?

LI: Very possible.

TI: Okay, but then eventually your mother also comes to America, so where does she go? Is it New York, or where?

LI: No, because when she was in middle school in Japan, her father wasn't there, so she wrote a letter to him saying, "I really miss you, so would you please come back to Japan?" So eventually he did come back, and then my grandmother and my mother came to, I think, I don't know if it was Portland or... on the West Coast somewhere, all of them stayed here. Let's see...

TI: So that was a big shift, I think, especially for your grandmother.

LI: Yes, it was. And my mother had no siblings when they were in Japan, but when they came over here, they started another family. There were three siblings, but they were quite a few years apart, so they had three children after they came here.

TI: So your family's really interesting. It's a little complicated, because you have an uncle and two aunts who are, I guess, Nisei. They're U.S. citizens, they were born in the United States.

LI: Right. My mother was an Issei, of course, (when they) came over here.

TI: Okay. And what did the family do in Portland?

LI: I think they (then worked on a farm).

TI: And so in some ways, your, so your mother had three siblings, Mas...

LI: Mas, called Masaki.

TI: Hannah?

LI: Hanaye.

TI: Hanaye.

LI: And Tamaye. So they would be my aunts.

TI: Right. And age difference, how different in age were they from you?

LI: Well, let's see. Mas was probably three or four years older, and then my auntie Hanaye, I think, was only two years older than I, and Tamaye is the same age as I am, but the niece is a little older, me. [Laughs]

TI: So in some ways, they probably felt more like cousins rather than your uncle and aunt.

LI: That's right. So my mother and her mother were pregnant at the same time, actually.

TI: So in some ways, your mom, even though they were siblings, was probably more like an aunt to you, too.

LI: That's right.

TI: How interesting, okay. This is fun.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2013 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.