<Begin Segment 13>

MA: So tell me a little bit more about your husband. How did you meet him? Was it at this dance?

MT: [Laughs] That's sort of funny. Well, there was a, there was a Caucasian who sponsored quite a few Nihonjins, quite a few. And Division and Sprague, very busy little street, but it was right there. And they took tires off and put 'em back on and this and that, that kind of work. And I had to, we passed there to go down to the laundry to work, my sister and I. And they'd look at us and we'd look at them. [Laughs]

MA: These were the Seattle Niseis?

MT: Yeah, that were there, and then, well, I, during the summer and stuff, I used to work at the greenhouse.

MA: Which greenhouse was this?

MT: Gothman's. Well, it's one that's not there anymore, but Gothman's Greenhouse. And I used to make cuttings and things like that, but the boys, some of them transferred from the tire shop up to there because he would accept Nihonjins. So I met them there, too. Bill Yorozu, you remember him? Yeah. He was there and his brother Henry, "Popo." And all those fellows, Henry wasn't here, but Bill was. Then he went to WSU, I guess, so they'd come through town. But yeah, that's how I met him. After that date, my sister said, "Well, at least he's a good dancer." [Laughs] But that's okay. And I'm a lousy dancer. [Laughs]

MA: And he, you were telling me earlier that he had been incarcerated, right, at Minidoka?

MT: Oh yes, he just got out to work with the sponsor.

MA: So he was sponsored by the tire shop to work?

MT: Tire shop first.

MA: What did he tell you about Minidoka?

MT: He didn't say too much. They don't say too much. What they... what I hear more from is from the shows. That show from that... Snow...

MA: Snow Falling on Cedars?

MT: Yeah, uh-huh. And my friend says that's pretty close to the truth, the way it was done. He says camp life was just like that, yeah, and then the others say, the men would be behind there and you're in a line to eat, and they go... [laughs] That's funny.

MA: And you're husband's, so he came over to work in Spokane, but his family was still in Minidoka, right?

MT: They came out, they came out when everybody was told to get out, and came and lived with us. We got married and then we had an immediate family. They stayed with us several years, and oh, I'll betcha five years, ten years, maybe somewhere around there.

MA: And you, but you never visited them while they were in Minidoka?

MT: I was just going to go there, and then his mother, then their daughter died. I was just, he and I were, just made plans to go there so they could see who I am, and his sister died in camp, so that just ruined it. I wished I had met her. But anyway, they're, and the husband of Kimi Tai was a woman... and the husband was Ted Saito, but his kids did very well. He's a dentist and she's working for the government and has been back in Washington, D.C. She's married and he's married. Did very, very well.

MA: And who is this?

MT: Saito. My niece and nephew.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.