<Begin Segment 24>

AI: And then as you say, he came back and then you said that you were married in December. And let's see, is this the, one of your pictures?

LK: Yeah.

AI: If we could show it. And if you can tell a little bit about what your wedding was like.

LK: Oh, being wartime and all, and although we had wanted to get married in Chicago, my parents were in -- by then they had relocated to Minneapolis so we got married at my mother's house -- and I think there was eleven (in the) family and then the minister and his wife and then I had two or three friends that were up in Minneapolis so they came to the wedding. So we laughed because we had seventeen people altogether at our wedding. [Laughs]

AI: Oh.

LK: And we got married at my mother's house and she made a very nice refreshments for our reception and that was our wedding. We went up to Minneapolis a couple of days before we got married and then went right back to Chicago. And we had, Shiro gave me the choice of should we take our honeymoon to New York or should we buy furniture. And we had found an apartment so I chose to buy, buy furniture. So we just went right back to Chicago where we had set up our little apartment. We were very lucky to have found an apartment, you know, in those days.

AI: Yes. Well, now tell me then, how long did you live in Chicago after you were married?

LK: We lived there one year because Shiro went to school for one year there. And he was very anxious to come back to Seattle. So as soon as he finished school, he contacted his former employer and had a job that we could go home to. So we left in January of '47.

AI: And came back to Seattle.

LK: Back to Seattle.

AI: And what was it like when you first came back?

LK: Oh, it was so quiet compared to Chicago. [Laughs] But it took a great adjustment for us to get back to Chicago, or get back from Chicago, because of the difference of the city. But with friends and a little bit of family, we adjusted readily.

AI: And where, did you have any problem finding a place to live?

LK: My sister was back in Seattle by then and she had found this apartment for us, so that was waiting for us and that made it easy. And then Shiro had the job with Tashiro Hardware and -- he had worked there before the war. And then I found an office job.

AI: Was it very difficult finding a job? Was there much prejudice or discrimination at that time?

LK: Well, I didn't face that much. I think I found a job pretty easily.

<End Segment 24> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.