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KB: Today's date is Tuesday, July 1, 2014. We're conducting this interview at the Oregon Buddhist Church in Portland, Oregon. This interview is being conducted by the Oregon Nikkei Endowment as part of the Minidoka Oral History Project. There is one observer present in the room, Marlene Wallingford. Our camera operator is Ian McCluskey from Northwest Documentary. I'm the interviewer, Kim Blair, and today, we're interviewing Shig Oka. Good morning, Shig, how are you?

SO: Good morning. I'm fine, thank you.

KB: Great, thank you so much for coming today. Can you start by telling us when and where you were born?

SO: I was born in Portland, Oregon, July 28, 1930. I was born in between the railroad tracks at the Portland railroad station.

KB: And where were you living at that time?

SO: I was living in a converted boxcar.

KB: Why were you living in a converted boxcar? Can you tell us a little bit about that?

SO: I was born there because my dad worked for the SP&S, which is Spokane, (Portland & Seattle) Railroad company.

KB: And the railroad car was your home?

SO: Yes. They converted a railroad car into a home for us.

KB: How many of them were down there at that time, do you remember?

SO: I know there are at least two families in the area.

KB: And do you remember the street area or right where it was exactly?

SO: Around between Hoyt and Marshall.

KB: How long did you live in that converted boxcar?

SO: It must have been a year or two because we moved to the Beaver Apartments, which was on Twelfth (Avenue) and about Marshall Street.

KB: Do you remember the apartments and not the boxcar?

SO: That's right, because I was too young, just a baby.

KB: And what was your full name at birth?

SO: Shigeo Oka.

KB: And is there any significance to your first name?

SO: I don't believe so. There's a lot of Shigs, Shig is short for Shigeo, and there's other Shigs, Shigeru and other endings to Shig.

KB: Was that a common name?

SO: Common name.

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