<Begin Segment 3>

MA: And then how did he end up meeting and marrying your mother?

KB: Well, it was one of those arranged marriages. She came from a village not too far from where he was born, and somebody made the arrangements to have her marry him. And actually, I think the marriage, I don't know whether there was a ceremony or what, but everything was taken care of in Japan before she actually came to the United States.

MA: So did he actually go to Japan?

KB: No, they didn't meet until she arrived in the United States.

MA: And so you said your mother was from Okayama?

KB: She was from Okayama.

MA: So a similar area. What did her family do in Japan?

KB: They were sort of like farming, but I always heard that they had lots of trees, and they were, I think, involved with lumbering or whatever, I'm not exactly sure what that meant. But they had yama, they had old yama. So it was a little different, but I think they did a little farming also. And the farming was mostly like raising rice. Nowadays they have a lot of orchards in that area.

MA: Did she talk much about her experience coming over to the U.S. and meeting your father? Did she talk to you much about that, or did she talk about that in general?

KB: Not really too much, but I think it was quite an experience for her to come to the United States. And finding the different living conditions, also the food, she was always telling us, "I never knew what butter was or what cheese was until I came to the United States." So I think it was quite a change for her to adjust to the conditions in the United States.

MA: And how old was she when she came?

KB: She was twenty.

MA: So still very young.

KB: Uh-huh.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.