<Begin Segment 3>

MN: Now, how did your mother and father meet?

TI: Well, they met at the Methodist church. And so they got a baishakunin for them, and then they were married.

MN: Do you know how your father became a Christian?

TI: Yes. He attended the Methodist Church, because I think they had English classes there. And so he became a Christian (...).

MN: And so at the time your mother and father met, what was your father doing?

TI: He was selling insurance. He had an insurance business.

MN: And your parents married on June 2, 1923, the garden of the Jane Couch Home.

TI: Yes.

MN: Can you share with us what this wedding was like?

TI: They put palm fronds to make several arches, and Reverend Kawashima officiated. And according to her bride's book, there were, I think, 125 guests at their wedding. So it was quite a large wedding.

MN: Do you know if your grandparents from Japan, did they come over for the wedding?

TI: No.

MN: Do you know if your parents returned to Japan for a separate ceremony?

TI: No, they didn't.

MN: Did your parents go on a honeymoon?

TI: Yes. They went on a honeymoon to Yosemite park, and my mother said that the roads were very curvy and there was only two lanes, so she had to honk the horn for my father every time they approached a curve.

MN: Well, you know, most Issei at the time, they couldn't take the time or the money to go on a honeymoon. Which, so, and I find this really unusual that your parents were able to do this. Do you know how they, was your father working and doing very well, or how did they fund a honeymoon?

TI: Apparently so. [Laughs] I have pictures of their honeymoon.

MN: Do you know why they chose Yosemite?

TI: No, I don't.

MN: And then is it after, shortly after they got married, is that when the Jane Couch Home closed?

TI: Yes. It closed before, that's why my mother married.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.