<Begin Segment 63>

TI: Okay, so Henry, we had just finished talking about some of your career, and some things about the Japanese Canadian Redress Foundation. And while you were busy with all these things, you were also busy raising a family.

HS: That's right.

TI: And I just wanted to talk a little bit about that. So can you tell me how you met your wife?

HS: Well, Joan was a student nurse at the University Hospital, University Hospital in Edmonton, and that's the University of Alberta hospital. And she was in training as a nurse at that time. I met her when she was still a student nurse. And she was a student nurse, senior student nurse by that time, when I really got to know her.

TI: And about what year was this?

HS: Huh? The year was 195-, about 1956 or '55, '56.

TI: So this is a couple years after you had graduated.

HS: Yes.

TI: Okay.

HS: By 1956, I had gotten to know Joan quite well, and we got engaged while she was, she was in... what was she, she was in the hospital for some minor problem, she had pneumonia or something like that, or some, I know I remember she was in bed at the time, in the hospital. And I, at that time, I proposed to her, I brought a ring. And this friend of mine that was, as a sideline, he was there doing some, he was doing some what you might call post-graduate training in obstetrics, but he was actually a general practitioner from, from Lethbridge, and he owned, as part of his deal, he owned a jewelry shop. And so he gave me the opportunity to buy a ring, and engagement diamond ring for a good price, and at that same time, he gave me this huge crown, special crown to hold the ring in, which I then brought to Joan. And she was amazed to see that in the, in this big crown I had, you opened it up, and inside it was an engagement ring, and she, she then accepted it at that, right at that time. And in 1957 we were married, in October of 1957.

TI: So I'm curious, when you started dating, Joan is Caucasian.

HS: Yes.

TI: And I'm curious, in terms of being sort of, of your generation, was it fairly common to have, to see these sort of interracial type of marriages or relationships?

HS: It wasn't a common thing at that time, and in fact, there was a concerted effort by a number of the Japanese people in Edmonton to arrange parties and things where we met girls of our same group, and an attempt to try and foster some kind of relationship that way. However, there were two doctors, one a veterinarian doctor, and one who was a graduate of the University of Alberta, had been a doctor in Edmonton for about, at that time, at least ten years' plus, and he was married to, both of them were married to nurses. So it wasn't something new, completely new, although it was very uncommon at the time. And like Joan said, both our mothers cried when we made our engagement, because they, they had no idea of what was going on, because it was, this was entirely something new, and they were just flabbergasted, you might say.

TI: Well, so what was your parents', did you ever talk to them directly about the relationship?

HS: Well, yes. She, after a little bit of talking, and my mother certainly accepted it. She said, "Well, you know, if that's what you feel is, is you'd like to do, then I think you go ahead. And I think the same occurred with Joan, she was determined that she would marry me, and I think her mother also accepted that, although this was something unexpected that she was concerned.

TI: And in general, how were the, kind of, in-law relationships? Yours with Joan's side of the family, and Joan with your side?

HS: It was very amicable, but it wasn't, I mean, we weren't... my mother, we were in Edmonton and his, her, her family was out in Fort Saskatchewan, which was in the outskirts of Edmonton, and it wasn't like they were visiting each other or anything like that. No, that didn't occur, because it was, there was a problem with distance as well as a problem of opportunity. 'Cause they, her mother was still working as a teacher when it happened. And her father was a guard in, at that point, had owned a garage, he had sold the garage, he was now working in the, there was a huge penitentiary there, and it was right in the town of Fort Saskatchewan, and he began to work for them there. And so, but we got married in, in an Anglican church, it was a church that, in Edmonton, that my mother, who had continued to remain Anglican at All Saints Cathedral, but it was, we felt it was too large a place to have our wedding. We had it right in a community church, which was an Anglican church, and had their reception downstairs, which was the common thing to do in those days. In 1957, very few people were saying, booking the big hotels and things like that for receptions. It was usually in community churches or small churches, and that nature.

TI: So I'm curious, if Joan were here and I asked her what was it about you that attracted her to you, what would she say?

HS: I don't know. I think she, I think we fell in love, main thing. She was, she had, she'd had relationships before, so she knew all about it. It's just that I think her relationships were, she found them, that things with other, other Caucasian males had not worked out. It seemed like it, when she met me, it seemed like something that was more permanent.

TI: And for you, what was it about Joan that attracted you?

HS: Well, she was very attractive, and though she, and I liked her a lot. And because, and I just felt that she was a beautiful girl, and so I thought, "Gee, it would be wonderful to be able to be married," and we, when I asked her to be, that we be engaged, she accepted right away. So that sort of set the stage.

TI: Okay, that's good.

<End Segment 63> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.