<Begin Segment 20>

TI: So let's go back to Spokane. So, so after all this happened, you went back to Spokane and you met your first wife there?

ET: Yeah, uh-huh.

TI: So, so talk about that. How did you meet her and who was she?

ET: Well, I think we've known her and her family, her brother was at the University of Washington, and I remember him. And after maybe about... when I first went it was about, then it was about 1942, 1943. Yeah, 1943, and I was already know her and going around with her. And you want me to just say 1946? Got married in 1946.

TI: Right. But before, so 1943, you're in Spokane, and you started dating her. I'm curious, what was Spokane like in 1943 when you first arrived here?

ET: First I didn't think I'm gonna stay here. I still would have gone back to either Chicago or, or Seattle. But of course, the marriage has a lot to do with me staying here. I had a daughter that same year.

TI: And this is 1946?

ET: That's 1946, yeah. So she's, she's already sixty this year. November she'll be sixty. So I got, I was married in January 5th, and then became the father in November, then a widower in December, so all in one year.

TI: So your wife died very quickly.

ET: Yeah, twenty-ninth of December.

TI: And what happened? How did she die?

ET: Well, I think she had a complication of intestinal problem that she had, and it was just, became a pretty much malignant cancer type. And then we knew baby was gonna be, probably not gonna be alive when she came, but she was. I mean, she was healthy, I couldn't believe it. She just cried out, and I said, "Is that my baby crying?" And she's a healthy baby, she's a healthy lady today, sixty.

TI: So your wife was able to, to give birth right before --

ET: Yeah, able to give birth, but then from there, she just went downhill.

TI: So this, boy, I'm thinking about your life, because you mentioned earlier, just, your father had died just a couple years earlier, then your wife dies, you have a brand-new newborn. I mean, for your life, it must have been a very, very difficult time for you.

ET: I think it's probably made me decide to stay in Spokane forever in that time. And I took a baptismal from a church, and it was a Japanese, Japanese Methodist Church. But Reverend Goto was very good to me, and he didn't ask me to be baptized, but I said, "I want to be baptized January 1, 1947." So...

TI: And part of being baptized was because that's where you, you found... I'm trying to, you know, solace, or a place...

ET: Well, I think it's pretty much I need some type of good religious belief, something that I could just hang on, for the sake of bringing my daughter up. I could be, very easily get drunk and forget about everything and probably disappear. But then no, probably it's keep reminding me that I do have a responsibility. So I was very close to my wife's family, and the mother said, "Don't worry, we'll take care of her," and she did. And 1949, my second wife said, "Well, after we settle everything, we're gonna bring Nancy back to our house." So it was very lucky that I had...

TI: So it sounds like you got a lot of support from your...

ET: Uh-huh, yeah. People just give me --

TI: ...from your first wife's family.

ET: Even medical doctors helped a lot, too.

TI: How about other people in the community? Was there support from other people?

ET: Yeah, community was very supportive of the thing. Many remarried, remarriage proposal and things like that, the community was constantly... but I think I knew, my mother told me that, "I think you have a great partner in your life in the future," and that was my wife today.

TI: You, one of the reasons why you came to Spokane was because of Keith. During this difficult period, were you still connected with Keith, did you see him?

ET: Oh, yeah. Keith eventually left Spokane to go back to his former job in Seattle, Craftsman Press. We were able to go back freely in those days, so he did. And of course, employer here agreed with him, but then, "If you ever want to come back, you always have a home here." So even he was, he was again, very lucky guy, that if doesn't thing work, come back. Well, Craftsmen Press was not -- to me, I don't know for sure what happened -- but it wasn't exactly the same as what he, what he dreamed about. So he must have called up Warren, his employer here, and they just open arms, just welcomed him back, and then he stayed ever since.

TI: And that must have made you happy to have him back.

ET: Yeah, so that made me happy because of the fact that... many of 'em, well, Keith couldn't become my best man. I wanted him to be my best man but he couldn't. So the second fellow was with me, Mo Naito, he's also deceased now, but he became my best man at the wedding.

TI: Okay, so let me see if I can summarize some of this, because it's a little complicated. So in 1946, you married Tama Yuasa?

ET: Right.

TI: And with her, you had a daughter, Nancy, and this was in 1949 -- I'm sorry, '46. And then 1949 you remarried Hide. And Hide's last name or maiden name?

ET: Kunugi, K-U-N-U-G-I.

TI: Okay, Kunugi. And she was actually, you met her actually in Puyallup and Minidoka. And actually in Minidoka you were neighbors. And then in 1949 you were married, Nancy came back and lived with you, and did you have any other children with Hide?

ET: Yeah, Hide and I, we have another girl and a boy, just two children. And they're both in the Seattle area. Right now, Margaret is in Puyallup, she's a schoolteacher in Puyallup. My son is, was an executive in Key Bank, he's a senior loan officer, so it, he takes care of the loans around that area, Seattle area.

TI: And his name is Mark?

ET: Mark.

TI: So it's Nancy, Margaret and Mark, okay, so we have that.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.