<Begin Segment 39>

MA: So you've had, I mean, so many experiences, and you have quite a story that you've told. What do you want people, when they hear this story, to learn or to take from your experiences?

GY: How did you mean that now?

MA: What do you want people to learn from your story, or take away when they hear it?

GY: Oh, I don't know. I guess we did as we pleased. My wife, she was raised in the Caucasian atmosphere. My wife lost her mother in 1931 when she was a year old. My wife was born in 1930, her mother died shortly thereafter from TB. 1937, in Parkland Hospital in Puyallup or Tacoma area, her father died. She was six or seven years old at that point when her father died. After we were married, we happened to be going by this hospital, and it had "Parkland" on it, and my wife immediately hollered, "Stop, stop, stop," and I stopped, and she started to cry. [Cries] I guess as a little girl, she remembered her father. And I guess it's only natural for a young girl, not having any parents to grow up with, and being assimilated into the Caucasian atmosphere. But you know, after we got married, she learned how to cook rice, she didn't know anything about rice or gohan, or sukiyaki. She, I really feel she assimilated a lot quicker and faster than myself, being full-blooded, knowing the Japanese culture. My wife didn't know anything about the Japanese culture, and she learned a lot from my mother. My mother made it a point to teach her about omochi and sushi and other Japanese sayings. And actually, my wife is a better Japanese than I am. [Laughs] Yeah, but my wife, when, anyway, that was the first time I have ever seen my wife have tears. And after her, she got her stroke here last December, something in her changed, and I could see her, when she was in the hospital, the Christmas caroling bunch, some church came through, and I could see her having tears then. And that was quite a surprise or shock to me, to see my wife having tears, other than grieving for her parents back years ago. So that stroke did something to my wife to have her have tears, which I find a little different, it's unusual. I guess that's about it there.

MA: Does she speak with you often about her childhood and her experiences?

GY: Not too much, no. She did talk, I met (...) Mrs. Ballou, who lived in Puyallup at that time. Shortly after we came back from back east, I was rather negligent in when we got married, I'm not, she must have sent Mrs. Ballou, the caretaker, a card, wedding card. But anyway, I met her, and she gave me a big hug, and I got to know her, the type of woman that she was. After she died, she was taken back to South Dakota where she is buried now. We got to find her gravesite so that we could just go there and visit. I believe her (...) nephew is Chuck Woodworth. And Chuck Woodworth is a retired minister now. While we were living in New York for twenty-five-plus years, Chuck was a preacher at Oak Hill Methodist Church, small town in upstate New York. And he finally, he and his wife Peggy settled in Sweetwater, close to where she was born, next, just over the Canadian border, from the Canadian border. And he's, my wife considers Chuck her brother. They're that close. And he's been calling just about every other day to find out how Susie's doing.

MA: What are your plans for your future?

GY: Well, I don't know how many more years I have left after open heart and pacemaker and back surgery and aorta with stents put in. I think I'd like to be able to travel, we're talking about just going into Canada, and what they call the onsen, which is a steam bath, and go up there and just kind of enjoy ourselves, and travel throughout the country. We've done enough of that, but sometimes... I'd like to see Florida where a friend of mine from the military is living there. John Okamoto, formerly from Seattle, I think his brother's living in Seattle now, and kind of visiting old friends, and do a lot of fly fishing. My wife, she's a pretty darn good sport. She will sit in the car and wait for me for several hours while I fly fish. And I, I got to be able to see my wife, also, you know, for safety's sake, I guess. But yeah, we, I just hope that our lives will still continue. We're at an age, and since my wife's stroke, it makes it, oh, a little bit more fearful for me. And I just hope I'm around to be able to live with my, my girl, my wife.

MA: Is there anything else you want to say?

GY: Not really, no.

MA: Okay, well, thank you so much.

GY: Thank you.

MA: This has been so great, yeah, so much fun, too.

GY: Sorry I talked too much.

MA: No, you didn't talk too much. It was great. Thank you.

GY: Well, thank you very much for inviting me.

<End Segment 39> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.