<Begin Segment 36>

AI: Well, so then as time passed, I understand your sister also was able to get a job. And was your brother also working?

AO: No, my brother went some other way and I don't know where he went to work. My younger sister was working with the military government as, in a typing pool and my wife Kimi was also working there. And in time -- this wasn't immediately when I arrived in Japan -- it was several years. And then my sister asked me if I would be interested in meeting a Japanese girl. And so we made a date to, for my sister to bring Kimi to a trolley stop that's near the front of the hospital. And that's where she introduced me to my wife, Kimi. And things led to one from another and now she's here. [Laughs]

AI: So when did you get married?

AO: It was, she introduced me to Kimi, it was sometime in 1949, and we were married in 1950.

AI: Well, so then at some point, did you start thinking about returning to the United States, or regaining your citizenship?

AO: Not at that time because there was talks that Wayne Collins, the attorney, was preparing a class-action suit against the government to restore our American citizenship. And he was asking for four hundred dollars, more like a deposit or retainer. And they said that if you pay the four hundred dollars that they would arrange for you to go to United States to stand trial or have a hearing, but that didn't come about. I did not pay it because I knew my chances of being reinstated would be very, very slim. So I didn't pursue that.

And, but I was very loyal to working for the, working at the military hospital, that the commanding officer kinda put me under his hand and, and he and I was very friendly, we were very close. And even after office, after work I would go on the way to Kimi's parents' home, was nearby his residence, and I would stop there and visit with him. And he liked to drink so I would be sitting there and his wife would be sitting and we'd always talk together. And then his name was Colonel Duryee. And he said, "Art, you want a, you want a highball?" I said, "Okay." So he asked this, "Mini-san, bring Art a highball." And that was the housekeeper for them. And so she'd go out and bring in a highball, a big glass. So I drank it. And after I drank it down and finished visiting, then I'd walk over a few blocks to see Kimi. Then Kimi's mother would say, "Ogami-san, nonda ne?" [Laughs] My face would be flushing red, but I wasn't a drinker, but I managed to find my way over there. [Laughs] And later I found that Mini-san was a sister to a babysitter that we arranged to have her come from Japan to baby-sit our baby after it was born. And the sister is here today in the United States, married to -- Mini-san, that was the housekeeper, was the former husband of Yasuko-san, the babysitter. She'd passed away, so she married her brother-in-law. And they're -- they lived in Walnut, where we live now. It's a coincidence that Yasuko-san was our babysitter and now the wife of this retired minister. So, we're fairly close friends now.

<End Segment 36> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.