<Begin Segment 10>

TI: Okay, we're now in the second hour of our interview today, Lucius. And where I wanted to go now is the second tour of duty in Japan, in Tokyo, around 1957, '58, when you met your future wife. And so can you set the scene? Because my understanding is that you had heard about this woman even before you met. And why don't we start with that. How did, what had you heard about Maynard Cooke?

LH: Well, Maynard, by that time, was working as a contract employee for the Department of State in Washington, D.C. And the single people in any organization know about other single people. So I had this friend of mine write me saying that, "There's this gal coming out and you ought to meet her." This friend actually was telling Maynard about me as well. I very much looked forward to meeting her. I was dating, as Maynard said, Japanese starlets, one the most famous of all, Yachigusa Kaoru, true name Matsuda Ikuko. Her mother wanted me to marry her, but I didn't speak good Japanese. That's the worst thing to do, is to marry someone you can't have a common language with. Marriage is difficult enough as it is.

TI: So Lucius, I have to ask this question. So if you didn't share a really common language, when you went on dates, what would you guys do? What would you talk about?

LH: If you didn't, you say?

TI: Yeah. So you don't really, aren't really able to communicate that well...

LH: Yeah, well, you're able to communicate well enough to enjoy meals together and talk about movies that she was in, you know, Japanese culture and history and American things that she might be interested in. I then, unfortunately, was transferred to the embassy in Seoul in late '57. And then Maynard actually came out in '58. And I met her once in the spring of '58, but then she told you about that party, an embassy party that was being given that she attended where I was also at and we met and we went out. And after three dates, I went back to Korea, wrote her forty different letters on Japanese washi paper, and...

TI: But explain to me that first time, that first reception there, you met her, and then the two of you talked, and I think you went later to another place to continue the conversation.

LH: Yes.

TI: What were your impressions of her? Because as Maynard discussed, or mentioned, there were other women around you.

LH: Yes. Well, here was this woman that I'd heard so much about, and here was my opportunity to get to know her better. And I had heard and then I knew immediately she was highly intelligent, so she was very intriguing from that standpoint. And she was a lovely woman with, as I said, very voluptuous. [Laughs] And it was all obvious to me she was a very gentle human being. So after that first evening, I dated her a couple more times before I had to go back to Korea. And that's when I started to write her all these letters, exchanging letters, and telling her, "I think this can be serious," and, "I really do think I love you," and, "You ought to really consider it." She really wasn't sure. So when I had to go back to Washington on consultation, I extended my one year there for a second year. But then when I went to Japan, and we dated a couple of times and got engaged, we discussed, well, we don't want to be separated a year before getting married.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.