Densho Digital Repository - Minoru Endo Interview

Densho Digital Repository
JACL Philadelphia Oral History Collection
Title: Minoru Endo Interview
Narrator: Minoru Endo
Interviewer: Herbert J. Horikawa
Location: Medford, New Jersey
Date: August 27, 1994
Densho ID: ddr-phljacl-1-9-1

<Begin Segment 1>

HH: All right. Today is Saturday, August 27th. The time now is about 9:23 a.m. in the morning. And I'm speaking with one of our interviewees. What is your full name?

ME: My name is Minoru Endo.

HH: And what is your wife's name?

ME: My wife's name is Aya Mineta Endo.

HH: Okay. How many siblings do you have?

ME: I have four siblings. We're a family of five kids.

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

ME: The oldest brother was twelve years older than I was. The second oldest was another brother six years older than me. And I had two sisters who were twins, who are two years older than I was.

HH: So you're the youngest?

ME: I'm the youngest.

HH: How many children do you have and what are their names and ages?

ME: I have two sons. The oldest one was born in 1942, which would make him fifty-two. And the second son was born in 1944, which would make him exactly fifty now.

HH: What kind of education did each of your children receive?

ME: We were living in New York at the time, and both of them went to the public school system in New York, to the Bronx High School of Science, before they went to college. And the older one went on to Brown University and then to Rutgers law school. And the second son went to Cornell University for his undergraduate work, and then to University of Illinois for his master's and doctorate in mathematics. And then he went to, then he taught for a while in Southern Illinois University and then went to med school in Chicago, University of Illinois med school in Chicago, and got his medical degree. And so now he practices medicine Ithaca.

HH: He has a PhD and an MD?

ME: Right.

HH: Maybe he'll get a law degree. And do you have any grandchildren at this point?

ME: Yes. My older son has two girls and one boy. The oldest granddaughter is, I think she's twenty-two. And the second girl is twenty years old, she's at Cornell now. And the grandson is, I think it's fourteen, just starting high school now. And my second son has a daughter, eight, and a son who's one year old now, I think.

HH: And you don't have any great-grandchildren?

ME: No, I don't have any great-grandchildren yet.