Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Mary Kageyama Nomura Interview
Narrator: Mary Kageyama Nomura
Interviewer: Tom Ikeda
Location: Torrance, California
Date: July 9, 2009
Densho ID: denshovh-nmary-02-0022

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TI: Well, eventually, you met the man that you married. Can you describe how you met your husband?

MN: Well, he heard me sing at the Nisei Week fashion show with his girlfriend. He was already in his twenties, and I was fourteen at that time. And he loved music, and he saw me sing and he said to himself, "I'm going to marry that girl." I mean, what a cad. He had a girlfriend sitting (...) beside him. And I said, "Whoa, are you two faced," I was thinking after I met him (when) he told me that. He said, "I always thought I was going to marry you." But anyway, I had to sing at a function of a club called the Manza-Knights, they were one of the most popular boys club in Manzanar, and he was the advisor. He was just a few years older than all the boys. But then I was asked to sing, and then he, being a very proper person, he asked, when I was asked to sing, he asked the boys, "Does Mary have an escort?" Because he said, "Make sure everybody has an escort, they can't go by themselves at nighttime." So they said, "Well, so and so has an escort, but Mary doesn't have one because her boyfriend just left camp, relocated." He says, "Well, then one of you boys take her." And all the boys were this tall, and all the boys who were taller had dates already. So he said, "Well, this won't do. Well, then, I'll take her, but you guys make sure you ask, when you ask somebody to entertain, you ask them, make sure they have an escort before you ask them." So he had his friend come to where I was working for the public works department and said, "(Shiro "Shi") Nomura is going to come pick you up. He will be your escort for the night." I said, "Okay." So he came to pick me up, and the rest is history.

TI: What were your first impressions of Shi?

MN: Oh, I thought he was the best-looking man in Manzanar. He was a very handsome man. And, but the fellow who brought the message to me was his (...) best man (at our wedding). And of course we remained friends. And his sister was in the same club that I was in that we formed while we were in Manzanar, and we still get together. But since then, we just hit it off and got married.

TI: Well, describe how you and Shi dated at Manzanar. What would be a typical activity?

MN: Only to go to movies, the outdoor movies, or dances that were held. (...) He was a fast worker. We were introduced at the Thanksgiving dance called the Turkey Trot, that was the Manza-Knights every year thing, it was in 1944. And by the time I left camp in January, we were already promised to each other.

TI: So within just a few months.

MN: A few months, yes. And so I left camp in January when the Pacific coast opened up. He didn't come to California, Pasadena, where I was, until March of '45. And then in June of '45, we got married.

TI: That was fast.

MN: It was fast, yes. I would say he was a cradle-snatcher and a fast worker. [Laughs] There was a six-year difference between us.

<End Segment 22> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.