Interviews
The Origin of my Name (Japanese)
(Japanese) My name is Amano Hamako. Amano is my maiden name. I was born on August 30th, 1925. For anyone from Yokohama called Hamako, the name means “beach child”. However, my father picked up a hard Chinese character for my name. He chose the “ha” from “hari”, as in “kin gin hari” (gold, silver, and crystal). The “ma” is from the character for “mitsuru” (fullness). So, if you translate that into English, it would be the presumptuous name of “Jewel Child”. It’s Hamako written with the king radical, rather than the water radical. But the origin of my name, Hamako, is that I was born in Yokohama.
Date: January 26, 2012
Location: California, US
Interviewer: John Esaki, Yoko Nishimura
Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum
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