<Begin Segment 2>

JK: How about your mom? What was your mom's name and where was she...

MO: She was born and raised in Okayama, Japan.

JK: And her name was?

MO: Her name was Masano Onoda.

JK: Okay. Did her, was her family in any business or did any kind of work in Japan that you can remember?

MO: No, I don't know.

JK: Okay. Did she have brothers and sisters, too?

MO: Yes, she had brothers and sisters, but I don't know the details. I do know she had a sister. I don't know the other siblings.

JK: And your family is interesting on your mother's side in that her parents came to the United States.

MO: Yes.

JK: And they had children here and some of them died?

MO: My mother was the only one that was from Okayama, and my grandfather from Okayama came to Portland to visit us and stayed with us for a while.

JK: Okay, and you have memories of your grandpa.

MO: My grandfather.

JK: Uh-huh. What did he look like or what did he do?

MO: He was tall, real tall, gray-haired tall person.

JK: Okay. And was he doing work, too?

MO: No, he was a babysitter. I was the baby he was sitting.

JK: Okay, so his job was babysitting you, and then you have a memory where he used to take you, too.

MO: Oh, yes.

JK: Yeah, where did he take you?

MO: He took me to a barber shop where he had friends that was from the same country in Japan. So we walked several, several blocks to visit them every day.

JK: And where else did he take you to?

MO: Shopping, for a walk.

JK: Okay, so he did the shopping for the family, too?

MO: Yes, uh-huh.

JK: Okay, and so your grandfather was here in American babysitting you, and your grandma was in Japan?

MO: Japan, uh-huh.

JK: Okay, raising the...

MO: Rest of the... I don't know whether she had children to raise or not, 'cause he was the eldest, I think, one of the eldest.

JK: Oh, okay. Your mom, though, was born in Japan, but she had siblings that were born in the United States, too.

MO: Yes, uh-huh, because her parents came to the United States, and while they were here, they had babies, but most of them died for some reason. So I think there might have been out of four or so children, only one survived.

JK: Okay.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2013 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.