Densho Digital Repository - Hitoshi Thomas Tamaki Interview

Densho Digital Repository
JACL Philadelphia Oral History Collection
Title: Hitoshi Thomas Tamaki Interview
Narrator: Hitoshi Thomas Tamaki
Interviewer: Herbert J. Horikawa
Location: Medford, New Jersey
Date: August 27, 1994
Densho ID: ddr-phljacl-1-8-1

<Begin Segment 1>

HH: Today is August 27th, the time now is 5:24, in Medford Leas, New Jersey. What is your full name?

HT: My full name is Hitoshi Thomas Tamaki.

HH: What is the name of our wife?

HT: My wife's name is Marion Tamaki.

HH: Okay. How many siblings do you have?

HT: I have five siblings.

HH: And what are the genders and ages of each?

HT: I have an older sister age seventy-eight, and three other sisters age seventy-five, seventy-three, and seventy-one, and my youngest brother is sixty-eight.

HH: How many children did you have, what are their ages, and what are they doing?

HT: Well, I have four children. The oldest is forty-two, he is a vice-president of marketing and sales with Sybron Chemical in New Jersey. My second son, Greg, is forty-one years of age, and he works for a company called Medpro in Harleysville, Pennsylvania, and he is position as an estimator. And my daughter, Karen, who comes next, is a nurse. She is thirty-nine years old, but now she's a housekeeper since she has three children. And my youngest son is Drew, who is thirty-five years of age, and he works in computers with Vanguard investment firm in Valley Forge.

HH: And what kind of education did your children receive? I think some of those, I mean, the ones that I know, for instance, one daughter's a nurse, probably went to nursing school.

HT: Right.

HH: But then what about the others?

HT: Well, my children went to college. My oldest son, Dwight, completed four years at Bucknell. My number two son, Greg, completed two years of college at Philadelphia textile, and my daughter Karen completed a four-year course in nursing, and my youngest son, Drew, also completed four years of college.

HH: At this point, how many grandchildren do you have?

HT: At this point, I have six grandchildren.

HH: All right. And how do the break down as far as gender is concerned?

HT: My oldest grandchild is seventeen years old. I have a grandson who is Ryan, who is four years of age, and then I have two grandchildren that are two years of age. Russell, who is Karen's son, and Alan, who is Drew's son, they're both two years of age. And then recently my daughter Karen and her husband Phil adopted a child who is six months of age. They adopted this son, Clayton, who was born in Japan, and subsequently she herself became pregnant again and had a baby girl just a month ago. So she has three children.