<Begin Segment 19>

TI: And so before we get there, I guess I wanted to take a little bit of a tangent and talk about your courtship of Aki. Because about, we're getting to the point, about the time when you actually married her. But why don't you tell me how you met Aki and how you started dating her.

JY: Well, I knew Aki at UCLA, and my brother would often drop in to see Aki and her sister Terri, they were very attractive young, two sisters. And then as, after Pearl Harbor, she was taken to the Santa Anita Assembly Center where they stayed 'til the end of '42, almost to the end of '42, when the groups were dispersed to various internment camps throughout the country. And she stayed 'til the end to close up the camp, she was the camp dietitian by then. And arrangements were made for her to go to New York because her sister was there, and be responsible for her. And my brother wrote me and told me, "Aki's coming through Chicago." I had nothing to do with it, but she and another friend, my brother, had arranged to meet her in Chicago, and they called me up to see if I would like to meet her also, so I went down. And when I got there, it occurred that the two fellows, they had other engagements that day, and asked me to take care of Aki.

TI: Oh, so was it kind of a set up between the two of you?

JY: [Laughs] I'm not sure exactly. We never talked about the details with my brother. The only reason, I had a very nice afternoon before she took the connecting train to New York, and I guess that's what started it all up.

TI: So at that point, were you thinking that possibly she could be your wife?

JY: No, not at all. Just enough that when I got my army orders to go to Carlisle Barracks, I had to go through New York, at least gave me a little excuse to spend a few days in New York, see the town. By then I had money because I would have money since I was in the army, a certain stipend that I never had before. So I was able to take her out on dates when I got there. She said she would see me.

TI: And at this point were you thinking possibly more, that you were getting to know her a little bit more, and this was something that was getting more serious?

JY: Well, we had a very nice week there. So at the end of that time I thought that she was a nice girl.

TI: And at the end of that week, how did you part? Was there a sense that you would see each other again?

JY: Well, I did propose to her. [Laughs]

TI: Jim, you have to tell me these things. [Laughs] So you're in New York, you've met her in UCLA, you saw her in Chicago, and you spend a few days in New York. At the end of that time in New York, you proposed to her.

JY: Yeah. She did come to a party we had at the house before I went to medical school, and she gave me a box of stationery. And I took good care of that box of stationery, so that's quite a few years, right? [Laughs]

TI: It's probably always interesting to younger generations to see how fast things can happen. So you had all this, how did you propose to her?

JY: I guess we had taken a buggy ride through Central Park.

TI: That's romantic.

JY: Yeah.

[Interruption]

TI: -- and we're gonna start this third hour of the tape. And where we left off at the last tape was you had just started your nice story, your nice romantic story. Here you are in Central Park on a buggy, in one of those horse-drawn carriages, and you were gonna tell me how you proposed to Aki. So why don't you pick up the story from there.

JY: That's a difficult story, how did I propose to her? I would say it's a blur.

TI: We have to mention, Aki's in the room, so she's hearing this, too. But, I mean, what were you thinking? Because... is part if it -- I'm trying to imagine -- is part of it because you know you're going to be shipped out soon, and normally --

JY: Well, no, no, I didn't know that.

TI: You didn't know that?

JY: No, no.

TI: But was it, was there an urgency, though, to get married, because of the possibility of being shipped out, or was this the normal pace for you?

JY: No, I couldn't say it was the normal pace. I believe I really -- I don't know if I'm making this up or not -- it's the first time I had money. I knew I could support her with the income I was going to get. And there was no question she was a fine gal.

TI: So what was it? When you say --

JY: So it was a combination of... and I knew I wouldn't be able to get back to New York too often to get involved in this kind of situation, so all those things sort of combined.

TI: But here you were already assigned to the 106th?

JY: No, I was not.

TI: Oh, so you weren't with them yet?

JY: No.

TI: Okay.

JY: I'm just going for my initial induction into the service, introduced to medicine in the army.

TI: Okay. So it's a combination of finally having resources to think that you could actually take care of a family, and then this woman.

JY: Yeah.

TI: And I wanted to ask you, so what was it about Aki, what was special about Aki? Because you met lots of girls.

JY: No, no, I can't say I met a lot of girls.

TI: At UCLA...

JY: Oh, a few.

TI: ...and other places.

JY: But I never had the occasion where I had dates, you see. The closest to dates would be maybe a little dance at the school, maybe a hamburger at one of these drive-ins they used to have. But my pocket was very limited to about one hamburger and a soda, so that doesn't give you too much leeway to be getting very involved.

TI: So in some ways, Aki was really your first love then.

JY: Perhaps. [Laughs]

TI: So, okay, so you proposed to her in this, again, romantic place. I can't, if I thought of a romantic place, Central Park on a carriage ride would be a really romantic place. What did she say?

JY: I guess she told, in some way, she let me know there's no immediate answer.

TI: So she didn't say "yes."

JY: That's right. Sort of conveyed to me, "Not now."

TI: And so how did you feel about that?

JY: Well, I thought she had every rights to that, coming through town, and then an absurd situation and one week of dating, that's not... you didn't have any rights, really, to expect an answer.

TI: And yet, when you left, you must have been disappointed.

JY: Well, somewhat, yeah.

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 2005 Densho. All Rights Reserved.