<Begin Segment 18>

TI: During this time, did you have a job after the war?

MO: Yes. I had a -- because I spoke English, a Tokyo radio station hired me as an interpreter. And so that was a nice ending.

TI: Okay, so this was during that period where you said, so you're working as an interpreter, and now you're starting to see some Americans coming in and having ochazuke with them and things like that. So about this time, you also met your future husband.

MO: That's right, uh-huh.

TI: Describe that. How did you meet your husband?

MO: Somebody, they're in a... what do you call that? The group, the battalion, they go back to, they go out into the city of Tokyo and then they have to go back to their own billet. And then he said, "I met a Mrs. Tanaka's daughter," and then Harold said, "Oh, I know a Mrs. Tanaka." "Do you want to go see her?" He said, "Okay, sure." So somebody brought him, I cannot remember what his name was. But my mother's classmate's brother, he was in there. So he knew me, so he brought my husband Harold to the house, I met him for the first time.

TI: So it was kind of through a roundabout way that... so when he said he knew a Mrs. Tanaka, was that your mother?

MO: No, no. It was Tanaka-sensei. There were lots of Tanaka-sensei in the Hawaii Japanese language schools.

TI: And so where was Harold from?

MO: Harry's from Aiea. And then he was in the interpreters group because he was a radio announcer.

TI: So that's interesting. So he was a radio announcer, so he was in, so he was using his language abilities in the MIS on the American side, and you were using your language abilities on the Japanese side at the same time.

MO: Uh-huh.

TI: That's interesting, sort of ironic...

MO: That's right.

TI: ...that the two of you were doing that.

MO: So there was a lot of... and the Niseis started to come and visit me because I'm from Hawaii and I spoke Japanese, I mean, my mother was a teacher. And said, "Oh, I know, I'll bring my friend." They used to come and have ochazuke, so they used to have a lot of visitors. And they would bring me box of candies, things I never saw for a long time. And then that's when I came back to Hawaii, and that's when Harold came to visit me, because he remembers he came to visit me in Tokyo. But they didn't come and visit me until I came home to Hawaii.

TI: Well, do you recall when you met him in Tokyo? Was there something special about Harold that you remember?

MO: No, just another GI. [Laughs]

TI: [Laughs] Muriel, you're supposed to say he was special.

MO: No, he was just another GI. Because there were so many, my mother's students are all GIs, came by to visit me, too.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright ©2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.