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MN: Okay, today is September 1, 2010. We're at the Centenary United Methodist Church. We have here Bruce Teruo Kaji and Dana Hoshide is on the video camera, and I will be interviewing and my name is Martha Nakagawa. And Bruce, this is our second session with you. I think the last time we ended was you and Kiyo Maruyama opened a Little Tokyo office and during, that was during the day, and then you started to teach night classes at East L.A. College, and then in between you were sneaking visits with Frances Tashiro. Now, can you tell us, you, you were coming and visiting her at her parents' house, how was their reception of you?

BK: Well, when I was there her father was busy or ill. He was down with a problem of, what is it, not pneumonia, but tuberculosis, and he was confined to a rest home, so he was not at his home at the time I was teaching. And I don't know how soon after that he passed away, but as we were meeting with Frances and getting to know her better, then we waited a year after he passed away before we got married. So he was in pretty bad shape. He was not at home. He was in a sanitarium. But that was the story of my visiting. Her mother was very cordial and I didn't stay too long; I just dropped in and paid my respects on the way to teach, and I would not drop in after teaching. I would go straight home, so it was just, during the days I would teach I would drop in. Not every day.

MN: So when did you folks get married?

BK: We got married April 30, 1954, I think. My dates are bad. My dates lately, I can't remember a lot of dates, but I think that was '54 we got married.

MN: '54, and where did, where did you get married?

BK: Got married in Gardena, at the Methodist church, and the, there was a Reverend Wolfe. He couldn't pronounce our names. [Laughs] He, he married us. And we had a little reception at the church and we had our friends come in and after the ceremony they had a reception in the reception area, and it was not a big wedding. It's, after you get out of service there's not too many people around, and I wasn't in business very long with Kiyo, so we didn't have many contacts.

MN: Who took pictures at your wedding?

BK: Who...

MN: Took pictures.

BK: Who took the pictures? Miyatake. Yeah, Archie, when he was in better shape.

MN: Archie told me when they were growing up they didn't call you Bruce. They called you Teru.

BK: Teru. Teruo. And my neighbor, growing up, was another Teruo, Tsujimoto, and so people started to identify us as Teru T. and Teru K. And that's how we got along in our neighborhood.

MN: Now, when you got married did you live with Frances's mother or did you go, did you move into Gardena?

BK: Well Frances's mother owned a four-plex right next to her residence at 433 South Boyle, I think, and one of the units opened up, so Frances and I moved into one of the apartments there for a while. We stayed there and it was obvious that we were gonna have a family, so we decided we'd better move into a home and found a place in Gardena to buy, so we moved out of the place next to her mother and, on 5th Street, and went over to 14708 South -- no, it was on Compton Boulevard, at that time, in Gardena. It was a three bedroom house on Compton Boulevard, yeah.

MN: Which has been renamed Marine --

BK: Is now Marine, yeah.

MN: Now, before you moved into Gardena and you were living in the complex that Mrs. Tashiro owned, you were also active with the International Institute, which was very close to that house. Can you tell us what the International Institute was and what they did? Oh, and then you also became their first Japanese American board member, if I remember correctly. Can you tell us a little bit about the International Institute?

BK: Well, the International Institute was a red feather agency, community chest agency, and dealt with the foreign people who were trying to get adjusted to the life in the United States, and so they were helping all kinds of different ethnic groups, the, the French group, there were, I'm pretty sure German, Japanese and Chinese and Filipino. And Miss Esther Bartlett was the director, and she also encouraged young people, so the Japanese Americans returning back to Los Angeles area, she helped them by opening up the Institute for them to have meetings and dances. And so the Niseis took advantage of that because we had nothing, and when the girl clubs used to sponsor dance the boys would come over and they would go over to the Institute and have the privilege of using the facilities. That was very, very gracious, gracious of her. She was a real friend.

<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.