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TI: So today is April 22, 2014, and we're in Ontario, Oregon, and we're interviewing Yosh Suyematsu. So, Yosh, the first question is, can you tell me when and where you were born?

YS: Bainbridge Island, Rolling Bay. Well, we lived in Rolling Bay.

TI: So where is Rolling Bay?

YS: It's a little kind of city on the island. There's Rolling Bay, another one's Fletcher Bay, you know, Manzanita, all kinds of different places.

TI: Okay. So that was like a little, was it like a little town?

YS: Yeah, little town, or not even a town, just a store maybe.

TI: And when you say you were born in Rolling Bay, were you born at your house, or was there a place that you went to or your mother went to?

YS: Well, I guess there was a Dr. Shepherd who was the doctor, but I don't know where I was born.

TI: And then what day were you born? What was the date of your birth?

YS: 27th. I mean, the 30th day of '27 year.

TI: Okay, so May 30, 1927.

YS: '27.

TI: Okay, so that makes you eighty-six years old?

YS: Yeah, next month, eighty-seven.

TI: And what was the name given to you at birth?

YS: Yoshimitsu.

TI: And was there any significance to that name? Were you named after anyone?

YS: No, I don't think so.

TI: Good. And how about your siblings, brothers and sisters? How many brothers and sisters did you have?

YS: I had four brothers and two sisters.

TI: So can you walk down the...

YS: Well, the oldest one was, sister was Kimiko, and the oldest brother was Akio, Isamu, Toshio, me and then Eiko, then the youngest one was Yasuo. He passed away before the war.

TI: And how did Yasuo pass away? What happened to him?

YS: Well, they think it was a ruptured appendix, but they never did know because they never did autopsy or nothing. He died in '39.

TI: So then growing up, there were six of you.

YS: Yeah, six. Four boys and two girls.

TI: And how about your father? What was your father's name?

YS: Yasuji.

TI: And where in Japan did he grow up?

YS: Kumamoto.

TI: And do you know the town or the...

YS: Well, when I was there, I went there, but I met my mother's children, I guess, my mother's sister's children, I mean.

TI: So your cousins.

YS: Yeah, we would have been cousins.

TI: So why did your father come to America?

YS: My father's name is really not Suyematsu, it's Wakasugi, but two brothers came over together. And Wakasugithat lives here now, but there's only one left.

TI: So when he came over, he was a Wakasugi?

YS: Yeah. Well, see, in Japan, I guess, I don't know why he took the name Suyematsu. When I went there I tried to find out but I couldn't find out nothing. His name is...

TI: Wakasugi.

YS: Wakasugi, whatever it is.

TI: So why do you think? Do you have a theory?

YS: Well, before, in Japan, if they didn't have nobody to carry on their name, then they did that I think. I think that's what the reason was, but I really don't know. They don't really say, you know. But then when I was there, I tried to see, but nobody knew.

TI: Did he change his name in Japan or in America?

YS: I don't know.

TI: Yeah, so it's kind of interesting to do research. It'd be hard, because you're looking for Suyematsu, but it's Wakasugi.

YS: Then, like I say, there's hardly any Suyematsu. [Laughs]

TI: And when he came to America, where did he go?

YS: Where did he what?

TI: So where did he go to live in America?

YS: I think he used to work in a restaurant, I think, in Seattle. Then they moved to Bainbridge Island.

<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 2014 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.