Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Henry Bruno Yamada Interview
Narrator: Henry Bruno Yamada
Interviewer: Matt Emery
Location: Honolulu, Hawaii
Date: July 3, 1998
Densho ID: denshovh-yhenry-01-0011

<Begin Segment 11>

ME: Just a couple more questions here, Bruno. When, when did you meet your wife?

BY: I met my wife when, after I came home. I came home from Los Angeles.

ME: Okay.

BY: I moved to Los Angeles from Chicago.

ME: Right.

BY: And around 1950, I think, I met my wife during a picnic.

ME: Where was that picnic?

BY: It was in Bellows Field. They used to have the all 442 picnics out there. And so, her cousin brought her over, and I was pretty good friend with the cousin, so I got to, get, meet her. I got to meet her.

ME: I see. Love at first sight, right?

BY: Yeah.

ME: Yeah. What about the first time you went back home to Kauai? When was that, and what was that like?

BY: That was after we got married.

ME: Oh, okay.

BY: I didn't go back home until we got married.

ME: Wow. It had been a long time, then.

BY: And my stepmother -- my father got married again. My stepmother and father made a great big party for us, and invited the whole town. And we really had a wonderful time.

ME: That's great. So where are you living now?

BY: I'm living in a condominium in Aiea, called Pearl One.

ME: That's close by?

BY: Yeah.

ME: On the island here?

BY: Uh-huh.

ME: Any kids?

BY: Yeah. I have a boy and a girl living in Los Angeles.

ME: Oh, okay.

BY: Yeah.

ME: Grandchildren?

BY: Not yet.

ME: Not yet.

BY: No.

ME: Not yet. Someday.

BY: Yeah.

ME: What we're doing with our interviews, we'r -- we're going to preserve them for generations and generations to come, so that people can learn and hear about the experiences of, of Japanese Americans and the 442. And I was just wondering if you had any words of wisdom or anything that you'd like to say to future generations? It could be, it could be to your unborn grandchildren, or it could be to, to anyone at all. Just an -- any, any final comments that you might have.

BY: Well, I hope situation like this never comes again, but if it does, I hope that they would volunteer and do their best, and preserve our legacy. And as far as Shiro is concerned, we gonna really miss that guy. He, he's the best that we ever met from afar. Our love for him will live forever in our hearts. Thank you.

ME: Thank you, Bruno. Thank you very much.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.