<Begin Segment 12>

MA: And you went back to Hawaii at that point?

LN: Uh-huh.

MA: And when you returned, how did people treat you? Did people ask you where you had been, did people know what had happened?

LN: Well, you know, when I think about it -- see, because I had already, remember, I went to summer school so I could graduate. So I didn't go to high school when I went back. Now, my sisters went to high school, so I think they would experience some of that. I just went to work. So no, I didn't notice that there was... the transition wasn't difficult.

MA: And it was in Hawaii where you married Bert, right, your husband?

LN: Uh-huh.

MA: Can you tell me about how you met?

LN: Oh, we were classmates. They were in camp, also.

MA: The Nakano family?

LN: Yes, uh-huh. In fact, most of the business, the people who were taken, we always say "taken," the people who were interned, the father, oh, the head of the household that they interned were either businessmen, were from the businessman group, or schoolteachers, Japanese schoolteachers, or Buddhist ministers and so forth. So what was I saying now?

MA: Oh, about the Nakano family and meeting Bert?

LN: Oh, yeah, that's right. So his parents were in business, too, his father was a businessman. So they were, they were taken. But he was, his father was Issei, whereas my father was Nisei. So the second generation, the Niseis were pulled in later. They took all the Isseis first, and then they started rounding up the Niseis. And when they did that, by that time, they decided they're going to send us to the camps. So we all went. But, see, Bert was already there, because they were, his parents were Issei. So they were taken immediately.

MA: So he was in the first group of people from Hawaii that went.

LN: That's right, uh-huh. And the second group was Niseis like us. So we were the later.

MA: And so you and Bert met in Jerome then, in high school?

LN: Right, right, because we were classmates and all that, yeah. So we just knew each other, but I didn't really, we weren't dating or anything. In fact, I was going with another guy. [Laughs] Because Bert was living in another camp, a neighboring camp.

MA: And then when you were back in Hawaii, how did you finally reconnect?

LN: Yeah, he called me, and because there were a few of us that went back to Hawaii. So people were in touch with each other, they knew so-and-so was back. And so he called me, and we started dating. And one thing led to another... we were just dating, and next thing you know, his parents, I mean, this is the truth. We were only twenty-one, both of us, and his parents said, "I think you have to get married." Married? Oh, my goodness. My parents said, "What is going on?" Well, because his... they had a very complicated situation at home. His mother had died, and his father remarried. And she was a Nisei, he was Issei, so she was Nisei. And she would say, "You know, I married this man. I'll take the little girl." 'Cause she was only about five or six. She said, "I'm taking the, I'll take care of the little girl, but I'm not taking the rest of the family." She said, "I'm not here to become a mother to the rest of the boys." She said, "Are you?" She was really a women's lib feminist or something. From the very beginning, she used to talk to me really strange. She used to say, "Do you see yourself doing all this?" She says, "That's ridiculous."

MA: "All this" meaning family and getting married?

LN: Uh-huh, getting married and being stuck with all the boys. 'Cause Bert had a lot of brothers. So I said, "Well, this is not so bad. They're kind of fun, in fact." [Laughs] That's when I learned how to smoke and all that. I really thought it was fun. But she said, "No thank you," she said, "I'm not doing any of that. So I'll take the little girl and you take the rest of 'em." His father was a contractor, so he had two homes, one up on the hill and one on the other side. So that's what happened. And that's when they said, "You better get married."

MA: And so you got married?

LN: Yeah. So I thought, "Oh, my. Marriage?" My parents thought, "Are you sure you know what you're doing? You know what you're getting into?" I said, "Yeah, I think so. They seem nice." I was so naive, god, I didn't think about anything, when you really think about it, you know? Then we started to think about, oh, my brother was going to Chicago to go to school. So then at that time, we decided that, okay, Bert said, "Let's go to Chicago, too," he said, "I really would like to go to school, get some education and all that." So he went there, we went there with, we followed my parents, and we went to school. He went to school, then he went to junior college. See, he even had to go to a regular English school because he was a dropout in camp. [Laughs] So he had to go, really struggle through it. But he said, "I want to get educated. I want to get some education." So he went through all that, then he went to junior college and then he went to college. He graduated in Chicago. And he really came a long way from all that. He says, "I'm tired of being a bum." [Laughs]

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.