<Begin Segment 14>

MA: And can you tell me about how you met your husband and a little bit about him?

CT: Oh, he's going to die when he hears this story. [Laughs] I think we had a party, the group, the club, the Japanese American club had a party and people were drinking. Underage drinking. And my brother went to go sit in his car, 'cause he was gonna kind of cool off, and he unfortunately started the car. And so it jumped forward and he hit a tree. And I knew my husband, but I didn't know him that well. But I took the responsibility for it. [Laughs] So, anyway, and then, I think a couple years later, then we started dating.

MA: And you said your husband, is he a Nisei?

CT: I guess he'd be Nisei-han. His mother was born in Hawaii, in Hilo, and his father from Hiroshima. And both spoke Japanese, but then both spoke English, too. 'Cause, since my mother-in-law, like I said, is from Hawaii.

MA: Did your husband ever feel that sort of divide that you were talking about, the Sansei - Nisei, I mean in your family or anything? Like when he was interacting with your --

CT: We've never really talked about it, but I have a sense that it was probably quite a shock to him, when we went to my Los Angeles side. Because people engaged in a lot of discussion, heated discussion sometimes when you're talking about politics and things like that. But because all of my cousins, who are good friends, because not only that we grew up together, but I enjoy their company, they're all younger. Whereas in my husband's family, him being Nisei-han, everybody pretty much spoke Japanese. But he's never complained about having to go to my large family get-togethers. [Laughs] And he has a small family here. But we have pretty, quite a large extended family.

MA: And a lot of them are in, are still in the Los Angeles area?

CT: Uh-huh. And a lot are very involved in Japanese American community activist kinds of activities.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.