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Adoption Story

Around 1939 they learned about a Japanese baby girl that was in an orphanage. I'm not sure which orphanage it was but it probably was a Caucasian orphanage because my mother said when they first saw me, I was wearing these dirty little shirt, tee shirts and, you know, onesie and it was all dirty and I was dirty and they never really took time, I guess, to clean me up.

But I was five months old and they had not been able to have children. They had a dog, Pekinese dog named Chingy, but that was like their child, right? So then they decided they would adopt me.

And so when my dad came to pick me up at the orphanage, he had bought a new 1940 Plymouth. I have to say that that was the luckiest day of my life.


adoptions children families institutional care Japan orphanages

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)

Jane Aiko Yamano
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Yamano,Jane Aiko

New Year's food

(b.1964) California-born business woman in Japan. A successor of her late grandmother, who started a beauty business in Japan.

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Wayne Shigeto Yokoyama
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Yokoyama,Wayne Shigeto

Food growing up

(b.1948) Nikkei from Southern California living in Japan.

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Wayne Shigeto Yokoyama
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Yokoyama,Wayne Shigeto

Working at the magazine

(b.1948) Nikkei from Southern California living in Japan.

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Wally Kaname Yonamine
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Yonamine,Wally Kaname

His parents' experience with Japanese resistance toward intermarriage with Okinawans

(b.1925) Nisei of Okinawan descent. Had a 38-year career in Japan as a baseball player, coach, scout, and manager.

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Wally Kaname Yonamine
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Yonamine,Wally Kaname

The privations of living in post-war Japan, 1952

(b.1925) Nisei of Okinawan descent. Had a 38-year career in Japan as a baseball player, coach, scout, and manager.

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Wally Kaname Yonamine
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Yonamine,Wally Kaname

Working in cane fields as teenager to supplement family income

(b.1925) Nisei of Okinawan descent. Had a 38-year career in Japan as a baseball player, coach, scout, and manager.

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Pat Adachi
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Adachi,Pat

Relationship with my father

(b. 1920) Incarcerated during World War II. Active member of the Japanese Canadian community

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Kimi Wakabayashi
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Wakabayashi,Kimi

Arranged marriage

(b.1912) Japanese Canadian Issei. Immigrated with husband to Canada in 1931

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Shizuko Kadoguchi
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Kadoguchi,Shizuko

Marrying Bob against family’s wishes

(b.1920) Japanese Canadian Nisei. Established the Ikenobo Ikebana Society of Toronto

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Enson Inoue
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Inoue,Enson

Growing up in a Japanese American family

(b. 1967) Hawai`i-born professional fighter in Japan

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Enson Inoue
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Inoue,Enson

Tracing my family crest

(b. 1967) Hawai`i-born professional fighter in Japan

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Toshio Inahara
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Inahara,Toshio

Family background

(b. 1921) Vascular surgeon

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Toshio Inahara
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Inahara,Toshio

Driving 1930 Ford at age 12

(b. 1921) Vascular surgeon

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George Katsumi Yuzawa
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Yuzawa,George Katsumi

Death of sister in October 1942

(1915 - 2011) Nisei florist who resettled in New York City after WW II. Active in Japanese American civil rights movement

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Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston
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Houston,Jeanne Wakatsuki

Impact of Pearl Harbor on her family

(b. 1934) Writer

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