<Begin Segment 22>

[Translated from Japanese]

DG: When you met Mr. Terao, what did you think of him?

AT: At that time, nothing really. It was just that I served tea, and we talked, but since he was in the U.S., he wasn't modest like Japanese. He said anything frankly. And, I was speaking frankly with others at school, so I spoke frankly. The grandma explained the situation to my mother. She said, "Well, if she likes him, you don't have to ask his family lineage since it's the Teraos," and the match was made immediately.

DG: Well, young people back then, did they think about nice physique?

AT: Yeah, well, I thought that I didn't like short men. That was because my friend, well, she'd been married three months before. Her husband looked very handsome, but his height was only five feet and three inches, he wasn't so taller than his wife. I didn't like a man like that. [Laughs] It wouldn't work for me. When I looked at that, then, my husband was five feet and seven inches. He was tall. He also had a good construction. Then, my mother, too... his name was Shizuto. She said if it was Shizuto, since he was tall and well constructed, he wouldn't be pushed around anywhere he would go. So she said and we talked. Smoothly, my mother, with the grandma, arranged the marriage.

TY: Your mother and the grandma liked him, too.

AT: Yeah, she liked him, the grandma...

DG: If you didn't like him, was it okay if you opposed it?

AT: Of course it was okay. That was okay.

DG: Could you have?

AT: Yeah, I could have. But, since the related grandma made the arrangement, I couldn't do anything so unreasonable. But, the related grandma who arranged the marriage was, as I said before, a maid at a palace, so she was very strict. So my mother said that because it was her who arranged the marriage. Well, Kobata, the family was called Kobata. Kobata, it's a nickname since she was from the Kobatas. She said, "Grandma Kobata, she said it was okay and he is nice, so don't think that you should research his background by yourself. He said he wanted to marry you, if he said so, that's fine. I am saying no more yoshi, so go marry him." Since my mother said so, I said, "Yes, I am going to do as you say, Mother."

TY: In that case, if he was to be a yoshi, then you wouldn't have come to the U.S., and would have remained in Hiroshima, right?

AT: No, no. Even if he became a yoshi, what of the person, he just needed to go to the prefectural office and change it, the name. Just change it, and they would give him this paper work. If he wrote that he lived in the U.S. and was going to go over again, then he could come over.

TY: Is that so, but when yoshi, the yoshi, was made to a family with one daughter, was it okay if you still moved away from home?

AT: Yes, that's right. But, my mother had a hard time as a yoshi, so she said she didn't want any more yoshi.

TY: So she had you married.

AT: She said she would have me married. Just no more yoshi. A husband was yoshi, and he spent a lot of money. Well, a long time ago, you could withdraw money by stamping the signature stamps when you went to the bank. Then we saw it when we aired it. When we opened to see the bankbook, it was a lot. Twenty yen at that time was big. A long time ago. Ten yen was withdrawn, 20 yen was withdrawn, and we never withdrew, my mother never went to withdraw, but you can withdraw by stamping the stamp, so it was withdrawn. At that time -- the family of the yoshi were farmers and had a big farm -- he was back home to help. At that time, when we aired the bookshelf, the money was withdrawn, so we thought that we should tell him when he returned, and Mr. Takemoto, well, he was my relative on the Nagao side. He was my guardian. We called in Uncle Takemoto and explained that such and such things happened, and we showed the bankbook of the bank, and we had the uncle negotiate with him, that we didn't want him back again. We wouldn't let him back home. He apologized humbly and said that he wanted to come back, but we absolutely did not want him back.

<End Segment 22> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.