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TK: And something happened in Detroit.

KK: Yes, well, I was there for, from 1942, when I graduated from college, that fall I went up to Detroit. And I was there, and I only met Fred in 1945. But about 1943, probably, I met some Japanese American girls who had come to the church that I was attending, they had been invited by our minister. I became very close friends with one of the girls, and actually, when we got married, she was my, my attendant. Through her, I met a lot of other Japanese Americans, boys and girls, some had come to go to college at Wayne University, some had come for jobs. There was an International House connected with the university, and there was where I met a lot of the Japanese -- I used to go with her to these programs that they had, and then we, sometimes we went bowling with some of the groups, and I just, she was, she was a good friend of mine. I had other friends in Detroit, but she was, became a real good friend. And through her, through having met this fellow named Mits Takayama, he was originally from California, we're just good friends, you know. And he had told us that... well, I had met Fred's brother before I met him.

TK: Which brother was this?

KK: There's a youngest brother named Joe, and I said to him -- oh, this friend of mine was named Elma, and I think she took the Pacific Citizen. She wasn't a member, but I think she took the paper. 'Cause that was the only news that was available about the Japanese community and what happening. It was then being, I think, written, published in Denver. And so we knew about the Korematsu case. So when I met Fred's brother, I had met enough Japanese Americans that I knew that some names were very common, like Jones, it'd be the equivalent of Jones and Smith in the, the American community. And I said to his brother, "Oh, Korematsu, that must be a rather common name." [Laughs] He said, "No, I don't think so." But he didn't, he didn't tip his hand, but he was Fred's brother. He probably thought I didn't know who Fred was. But that's, see, I knew I knew the name, it was familiar, and I didn't associate it with Fred and the case at the time, but I knew it was a familiar-sounding name, and I knew about "matsus" and "motos" and stuff like that. And so I know Mits was rooming, he was rooming with Mits Takayama at the YMCA, Fred's brother. And I know that he told me that... Fred had come to visit his brother on his way to New York. He had a friend there he was going to visit, and I think he actually thought he might stay in New York. And I remember Mits telling us that Fred had come in, and I guess he had slept in the bed with Fred's brother. [Laughs] And he said, "You know, I wanted to tell Joe something before I went to work, and I couldn't tell them apart." Now, I don't think they look that much alike, but he seemed to think they did. And, 'cause Joe has more of a round face like the mother, and Fred is high cheek bones and the thinner face like his father.

But anyway, eventually -- that was in April of 1945 -- Mits called me one Sunday afternoon. He went to a different church. And I think that was something we had in common, you know, we were both Christians. And he said, "How would you like to go for a ride?" And I said, "Okay," he said, "Do you think Elma would like to go?" And so I said, "Well, I'll call up and find out." So she said yes, and he called back and said, "Shall we pick you up?" So they picked me up at my apartment building, and then we picked up Elma. And gas was so rationed then, you know, you couldn't go anywhere much. But Fred, of course, one of the first things he did after he got a job was buy a car. And in Detroit it wasn't a bad idea if you worked in certain sections, because although they had public transportation, it might take you a long time to get from one place, one part of the city to the other. So he, we did go for a ride, we went to this place called Bell Isle, which is on... I lived on the west side of town, and this was on the east side. And we sort of walked around and talked. I think in the beginning, I was in the -- I somehow got in the back seat with Mits, and Fred and Elma were in front. Then whenever we were going back, I was sitting in front with Fred, and Elma was back with Mits. Well, we dropped her off first, and then they took me to my apartment. It was still light, you know. And Fred walked me to my door of the apartment building, and he asked me for a date. He said how about the following Friday night. He was going to go hear Tommy Dorsey, see, there was a big band, that was the big band era. And unfortunately, I had already made plans, and I said, "Oh, I'm sorry, I can't go." And he said, well, he didn't take no -- "How about the following week?" And I didn't have anything, so I said, "Oh, all right."

Well, we dated a few times, and mostly going to dance, to the dance bands. There was a place called Eastwood Gardens, and all the dance bands were there, and there were service, servicemen and their dates, some teenagers, that were older teenagers. And Fred and I went, and nobody looked twice at us. It was an outdoor place, large dance area and tables around where you could... there were no, there was just soft drinks that they sold. So then we just started, you know, one thing led to another, we just started going together.

Then I went up to Michigan State, took a job up there as an assistant in research, and Fred would come up on the weekends. And then finally we decided we'd get married, so I got a job in Detroit at another hospital. And we were married in Detroit, and Mits was the best man, and Elma was my attendant.

TK: What was Elma's last name?

KK: Amamoto at the time.

TK: Did she marry later?

KK: Yes.

TK: It wasn't to Mits?

KK: No. No, Mits married a Caucasian girl, her name is Phyllis, and they now live in another part of Michigan, near Grand Travis Bay.

TK: What was it about Fred that set him apart from other people, so that you...

KK: Well, I had dated some other fellows in Detroit, some engineers... but he had a certain maturity about him, and he, I don't know, he was easygoing, he liked to, he liked to enjoy himself. It seemed like the other fellows I dated were... I don't know, they thought so much about themselves. And I didn't think they were, even though they were older, they didn't have the maturity. I know that one of the, some of the other friends that I had, Caucasian friends, I remember one in particular saying she had a boyfriend, and I said, "Oh, do you think you'll marry him?" And she said, "I don't think so, he's not, he's too, he has too many immature ways." [Laughs] So we were looking for maturity. It goes a long way.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 1996 Densho. All Rights Reserved.