<Begin Segment 18>

MA: So, can you talk about meeting your husband and how that happened?

YA: Oh, I met him at a Buddhist temple. And when we were in Crystal City, there was a couple that had no children, who belonged to our same Buddhist denomination. I think that lady was already, you know, conniving that she's gonna introduce me to my husband. Which... well, I had met him at the church. So they became our, what they call baishakunin, when we got married.

MA: And was he originally from California?

YA: Orange County, yeah, he was from Garden Grove.

MA: What type of work did, did he do?

YA: He was in the insurance business.

MA: And what, what type of work did you go into, then, after you got married?

YA: I originally worked in a sewing factory.

MA: In Los Angeles?

YA: In Los Angeles, because my mother wasn't working and I had to help, you know, support the family. The rent... at that time there was what they called the Office of Price Administration, O.P.A., and we were paying a hundred percent over what that rent should have been, which was one hundred dollars a month. You know the average wage, in those days, was... I forgot how much it was, but less than a dollar an hour.

MA: Was it the landlord just, basically, swindling you?

YA: It was, because housing was non-existent. It was very hard to find a rental. Housing shortage, and all the veterans were coming back, so there was no housing. Eventually we found another place to rent that was owned by a Nisei. And he charged the regular rent, so we were able to save some money.

MA: You worked in a clothing factory?

YA: Uh-huh.

MA: Where was this, neighborhood was this located?

YA: It was in downtown Los Angeles and that company went, it's no longer there but it was a sewing factory for women's suits, and I did the hand sewing.

MA: Who were the other workers that were there with you?

YA: Jewish women and other Issei women like my mother. In fact, I was working next to, we sat next to each other. By then she was able to work.

MA: And what were the conditions like at the sewing factory?

YA: Oh, it was, it was a union shop so we had breaks and no overtime.

MA: And then after you worked at the factory, what did you do then?

YA: Yeah, I got married, and then, until I got pregnant. And then I became a housewife for twenty-three years.

MA: Tell me about your children.

YA: Well, I have four children. My oldest son is now fifty... he was born in 1950, so he's fifty-eight. I have a daughter who is fifty-six and two younger sons, one was born in... fifty, fifty-four and fifty-two, I guess. No, fifty-three, fifty-five. I can't keep track. [Laughs]

MA: Are they living all over the country or did they stay in California?

YA: No, no. They're all living in southern California. I have eleven grandkids.

MA: That's quite a family.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.