Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Dorothy H. Sato Interview
Narrator: Dorothy H. Sato
Interviewer: Linda Tamura
Location: Hood River, Oregon
Date: October 30, 2013
Densho ID: denshovh-sdorothy-01-0001

<Begin Segment 1>

LT: So, Dorothy, where and when were you born?

DS: I was born on May the 24th, 1923, in Carlisle, Washington. My father was working in a lumber camp then. And we stayed -- well, I don't remember what they told me -- I think we stayed there 'til I was probably five or six years old.

LT: Okay, okay. And what was your full name when you were born?

DS: When I was born it was Hamako, a Japanese name.

LT: Okay, and your last name?

DS: Suguro. And that was my given name. And before went to high school, we put American names in front of our Japanese names. So that's why my name is Dorothy Hamako Sato now.

LT: So did you choose...

DS: We just chose our names. A lot of families did that at that time, because we were all given Japanese names because we had Japanese immigrant parents.

LT: Uh-huh. So did you choose the name or did your parents choose the name?

DS: No, I think all of us, my sisters and I, I think we just got together, and my sisters did the same thing to their names, too.

LT: And about how old were you when you made the change to become Dorothy?

DS: I think we were through with grade school. It was before we entered high school. And that's what we're known as, all of us, by American name.

LT: Was there a significance in choosing your American name between grade school and high school?

DS: No, I think we just did that because we were going on to high school, and we were through with our primary education.

LT: Okay. So can you tell me about your father, his name, where he was born?

DS: My father's name was Nobujiro Suguro, and he was born in Shizuoka, Japan. And he was forty-four when I was born.

LT: Okay.

DS: And other than that, it wasn't... I mean, just a typical Issei immigrant man.

LT: Okay. Do you have any information about his family?

DS: No, they rarely talked about... I do know that my mother, she talked about how she swam in the ocean, so I know that she lived by the ocean in Shizuoka. My mother and father never talked too much about their family in Japan for whatever reason, and naturally we never asked.

LT: Okay, okay. Can you give me your mother's name and where she was born and when?

DS: She was born in Shizuoka, Japan, her name was Matsu Noda, and I think she was born in 1889.

LT: Okay, okay. So what were the circumstances of your mother and father marrying in Japan, and then how did they decide to come to the United States?

DS: What I can remember is I think they came in search of greener pastures, and ending up in a lumber camp certainly isn't greener pastures, but that's what he did when he first came. And then they came to Seattle later after that.

LT: Okay, okay.

DS: They didn't talk too much about their life in Japan, I don't know why. We never asked.

LT: Sure.

DS: Just accepted.

LT: And I'm sure that was fairly typical.

DS: I think so.

<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 2013 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.