<Begin Segment 32>

MN: How long were you dating Takeko before you married?

AM: Let's see, I got married in 1949, so I've known her since 1945, I guess. For four years.

MN: When you met her in camp, did you already have in your mind that maybe this is the woman you want to get married to?

AM: Well, I can't say it never crossed my mind because I liked her from the very beginning, and so the only way to make sure is to go around for a while and it lasted four or five years until I got married. And then, because of camp closing and thing like that, things got long like that, I'm sure, but anyway, like she tells me every now and then, when I first went to her house in Manzanar, because I was in Japan I was able to speak Japanese, so I used to talk to the father first in Japanese because he didn't speak English too well, so I guess that was my way of kind of working around a little bit and try to speak to them in Japanese, and they were pretty surprised for me, for me to be speaking Japanese, and then later on they found out why it was that way. But anyway, oh, they were nice, she had nice father and mother and so, he was very strict, too. [Laughs] Well, when it, when the time came for marrying her they gave me the okay and everything.

MN: You said you married in '49. Where did you get married and who shot your wedding?

AM: Let's see, I got married at Nishi Hongwanji because Nishi Hongwanji was one of the first Buddhist temples that was started after the World War II and we used to do a lot of work for them. And in fact, well, the studio was located fairly close to the church, too, because we were on First Street, the south side of First Street, but the church was on the north side of First Street, now, which is across the street from the National Museum now, it's now the property of the National Museum because the church moved further east. So anyway, I got married there and had the reception where the Parker Center was. There used to be a Chinese restaurant, or it was owned by Japanese people, but it was known for being a Chinese type of food, so we had the reception there. And then I guess I didn't provide enough space for the people, so there was so many guests that didn't have any place to sit, so oh, my father got so uptight about it, so they went to ask this Chinese restaurant which was right next to the studio and they were nice enough to say okay, so quite a few people had to go to this restaurant which was right next door to the studio. It was called Lem's Cafe. So during the reception we, naturally, got up and walked around the, among the guests at the Konan, the other restaurant first, and then we went to this one next to the studio because they were there and then, oh, they were kind of surprised to see us, that we took off to, the main reception and go to their place, which was about half block away. But anyway, there was one old family friend that was a doctor named Dr. Furuzawa which, who was a very prominent doctor in Little Tokyo, and they were friends of my parents, so when I went over there this Mrs. Furuzawa came up to me and she's known me ever since I was a little kid, so she was so happy to see me and she, when I went to see the people at Lem's Cafe, this, first thing this lady came up to me and just hugged me. She was so happy to see the little boy that she knew came to see, see her at the reception. And it was quite a reception, I thought.

MN: Who took pictures of your wedding and reception? Was your father working?

AM: He took the portraits, but all the snapshots, one of the workers took the pictures. He, this fellow eventually left the studio after quite a number of years. He moved back to Sacramento. That's where he was from. So he opened up a studio in Sacramento.

MN: So your father was able to hire people in addition to having you work at the studio?

AM: Oh yeah.

MN: How many workers did you have there?

AM: Well, one of the, man that was working for my father from the camp days was this man named Mr. Kimura. They had this dry goods store on First Street and it was called the Kimura Brothers, and his hobby was photography, so when my father started his studio in Manzanar he wanted to work for my father, so he used to do all the printing while he was working for my father in camp. And so when we came out he was still working for my father, and so, let's see, he retired from the studio and then there was a camera store that was on San Pedro Street which was on sale, so he decided to purchase that. And it was called Tanaka Photo Mart at that time, but when he bought it he changed it to Kimura Photo Mart. And then from there he moved to Second Street and they built a new building and everything, and the son has been running it since the, Mr. Kimura, the father, passed away. So he just closed the studio. He retired, but they still own the building. So we were buying all of our supplies from him until he quit the business.

<End Segment 32> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.