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JK: Today's date is Sunday, November 10, 2013. This interview is taking place at the residence of Albert and Masuko Oyama in Lake Oswego, Oregon. Todd Mayberry and Betty Jean Harry from the Oregon Nikkei Endowment are observing this interview, and Ian McCluskey from NWDocumentary is the cameraman. I am the interviewer Janet Kakishita, and I will be interviewing my uncle, Albert Oyama, for this project, sponsored by the Oregon Nikkei Endowment, part of the Minidoka oral history project. Uncle Albert, we're going to start with some personal questions getting to know you, like when and where were you born?

AO: I was born in Portland, Oregon, Emanuel Hospital, April 10, 1926.

JK: And at that time, where were your parents living?

AO: They were living out in Montavilla, which is an east side district of Portland area.

JK: And what was the name that you were given at birth?

AO: Albert Akira Oyama.

JK: And is there any significance to your name?

AO: Not that I'm aware of. Akira, in Japanese, I understand, means "bright light." But other than that, I don't know anything about it.

JK: Okay. And let's talk a little bit about your father, get to know your father. What was his full name?

AO: His name was Iwao Oyama, and he's from Japan. He grew up in Yamanashi-ken, which is an area due west of Tokyo. He grew up as a farmer's son, though his grandfather, I understand, was a medical doctor in that area.

JK: And how about your dad? Was he going to school then?

AO: Yes. He was the second-born in his family, and I believe he was the second. And he went to Waseda University in Tokyo. He graduated from Waseda, which, at that time, was known primarily as a journalism school. So he graduated there before he came over to the United States.

JK: Okay. And how did he decide to come to the United States?

AO: That I don't know. I never talked to him about that.

JK: Do you know how many brothers and sisters he had?

AO: I think he was the second in a family of five children.

JK: And then let's talk about your mom. What was her name?

AO: Her name was Izumi Abe, and she grew up in, was born and grew up in Yamagata-ken, which is northwest of Tokyo.

JK: And what kind of work did your mother's family do?

AO: They were all in agriculture.

JK: And how did your mother decide to come, her family decide to come to the United States?

AO: That I don't know, although she was one of the few that went to college, she graduated from Tokyo Women's College. And why she decided to come to the U.S., I don't know. I don't even know if she knew my father at the time when she came over or not.

JK: Okay, let's talk about both of them now. How did they meet and get together?

AO: Again...

JK: Do you know?

AO: I don't know. All I know is that they met, and I believe they both met in Seattle. And my mother's uncle was a newspaper man, and he ran the newspaper in Portland, Japanese newspaper in Portland, Oregon. So I think my father came down to Portland to learn the newspaper, because my uncle wanted to go on down to San Francisco, and do a Japanese newspaper in the San Francisco Bay area. My mother evidently came to Portland about the same time, and they were married here in Portland in 1922. So that was probably a year or two after they came over from Japan.

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