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Backstory of Parents

My father was born on June 12, 1903 in Fukui, Japan and my mother was born on February 7, 1906 in Fukui, Japan, but in separate villages. So they didn’t really know each other at that time.

And my mother was the eldest of four children. And she was, she was the favorite of her father. And which is what she told me. And she always wanted to be a nurse. And the father finally after many years of being badgered, relented and they sent her off to nursing school.

My dad, he was a single child and his father remarried someone else and they had so he had a bunch of half-sisters.

When he was in his pre-teens or teens, his father left Japan and brought his only son over to the U.S. and sent him to work in the Bingham Copper Mines, which is pretty hard labor.

And once once a month when he got paid, Grandpa was there to collect all his money and give him a couple of dollars to last until the next month’s pay. And my dad said that he had never gotten anything. His father had never given him anything which is why when they had me, you know, he felt that he needed to give me everything if I asked for it.


families Fukui (city) Fukui Prefecture Japan parents

Date: May 13, 2022

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Evan Kodani

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

Interviewee Bio

Reiko T. Sakata was adopted from an orphanage in Los Angeles in 1939 at 5 months old by Issei parents. To avoid incarceration, the family moved with other Japanese to Salt Lake City, Utah until 1948. Returning to Los Angeles, her parents ran a laundromat in East Los Angeles, where she grew up. Years later, she and her parents moved to Torrance. Reiko graduated from Torrance High School, then went to the University of California, Berkeley. After Reiko got married, she and her spouse moved to Kent State, Ohio and witnessed the “Kent State shooting.” She received her Ph.D. at the University of North Carolina in Business Development, and served as a faculty member there in Organization Development and Business. She returned to Southern California to help her parents before they passed away. Prior to her retirement, Dr. Sakata was an entrepreneur and businesswoman in a variety of industries and fields for 32 years. She currently lives in Monrovia, California. (May 2023)

Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston
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Houston,Jeanne Wakatsuki

Initial impact on life at camp

(b. 1934) Writer

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Roy Hirabayashi
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Hirabayashi,Roy

Celebrating traditional Japanese New Years with family

(b.1951) Co-founder and managing director of San Jose Taiko.

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Roy Hirabayashi
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Hirabayashi,Roy

Learning Japanese at school and at home with family

(b.1951) Co-founder and managing director of San Jose Taiko.

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Aiko Yoshinaga Herzig
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Herzig,Aiko Yoshinaga

Results of being more American than Japanese

(1924-2018) Researcher, Activist

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Aiko Yoshinaga Herzig
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Herzig,Aiko Yoshinaga

Family separated in the camps

(1924-2018) Researcher, Activist

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Francis Y. Sogi
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Sogi,Francis Y.

Visiting family in Japan

(1923-2011) Lawyer, MIS veteran, founder of Francis and Sarah Sogi Foundation

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Bert A. Kobayashi
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Kobayashi,Bert A.

Family first

(b.1944) Founder of Kobayashi Group, LLC

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Bert A. Kobayashi
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Kobayashi,Bert A.

Being accepted as biracial family

(b.1944) Founder of Kobayashi Group, LLC

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George Yamada
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Yamada,George

Memories of railroad workers who stayed at family's prewar hotel in Spokane, Washington

(b. 1923) Chick sexer

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Margaret Oda
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Oda,Margaret

Growing up with Japanese language and values

(1925 - 2018) Nisei educator from Hawai‘i

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Roberto Hirose
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Hirose,Roberto

Retaining Japanese customs (Spanish)

(b. 1950) Nisei Chilean, Businessman

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Paula Hoyos Hattori
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Hattori,Paula Hoyos

Her interests in Japanese culture (Spanish)

Sansei Argentinean

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Paula Hoyos Hattori
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Hattori,Paula Hoyos

The memory of her grandfather (Spanish)

Sansei Argentinean

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Paula Hoyos Hattori
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Hattori,Paula Hoyos

Studying Japanese to understand her grandfather (Spanish)

Sansei Argentinean

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Ryoko Hokama
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Hokama,Ryoko

The most memorable day of his life (Japanese)

(b. 1917) Okinawan, Issei Argentinean

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