<Begin Segment 13>

TI: So I'm gonna move on because earlier you mentioned, after you graduated, you got married. And so let's talk about that, about how you met your husband.

ES: Well that is really kind of a strange thing. You know, Wonder Bakery had a bakery across, on Vancouver Avenue in Portland, and somebody, one of my friends, Japanese friends, said the Japanese are having a stag party, a stag dance party on, at Wonder Bakery. They have a recreation hall, and it was only about two blocks from the nurses' home. And I just don't even know how it happened that I heard about this. Anyway, it was Saturday night and I had a roommate, I had a roommate of five hakujin nurses, and so -- we just got along beautifully -- there was only one room that had six of us, in the nurses' home. And we just clicked. Everybody ate everybody else's food and some even borrowed some of my clothes. I had a fur coat and they, if it fit someone then they were, wanted to borrow my fur coat. I let them use it. And so we got along real well, but anyway, this one girl, she was my size, hakujin, I said, "You want to go to a stag party?" "Okay." So we went, and they had nickelodeons that played music, not a band or anything. So we sat there for a while, and we didn't know anybody, but they're all Japanese, young people, and my husband was one of 'em. And of course I didn't know him, but I was watching him and he was jitterbugging -- you know, in those years -- and it was fun. And I'd never jitterbugged before, and I thought, only thing that I could think of doing is use a, go to waltz or foxtrot or something like that.

So we just sat there for a while and pretty soon some people come and talk to us, and they said, come on, let's dance. And they're all young people, in their teens, and I was still in my teens because I was eighteen. No, I was, I must've been nineteen or twenty. And I happened to meet this one fellow, and I thought, gee, he's cute, he's a nice looking guy. And I found out what his name was and everything, and a few weeks went by and here his, there's a Japanese lady who, Haru Nomura was her husband, and she was having a baby at the hospital and I was taking care of the, taking care of the babies at the time. That's part of my training. And so I saw this name, Nomura, and I thought, well they must be Japanese, so I took the baby in to nurse and start talking to her, and she's a very nice lady. So the few -- those patients stay there about ten days after they have their baby. They didn't get 'em up the next day like they do now. And so I saw her for, several times while she was there, and she said, "When I go home, would you like to come over and, I have a brother that I think would like to meet you." I said, well sure, that'd be fun. And so, "I can cook Japanese food." "That'd be great." And of course it just went in my one ear and out the other. I just figured, well, some people say that and they never call. Well, after about six weeks after she got home, here she's calling me and she said, "I'd like to have you come over for dinner." So that was it, and he came after me and he knew who I was.

TI: Okay, and you were surprised because you recognized him from that dance weeks ago.

ES: Yeah. I haven't seen him since, but he came after me. He knew where I lived, so it was nice and I just hit it off just right.

TI: And so at that point you, the two of you started dating?

ES: Uh-huh.

TI: And tell me his name.

ES: Huh?

TI: And his name is?

ES: Arthur Somekawa.

TI: Arthur Somekawa.

ES: Yeah, and found out that he was working with his father in Nichi Bei Fish Company in downtown Portland. And he had, let's see, he had three sisters and two brothers, and they all wanted to go to college, and the poor, he was the oldest of them, six children, so he had to help his father so the others can go to college.

TI: Now was he okay with that, kind of sacrificing?

ES: He was okay with that, for a while. But after we got married I said, "You should, if you want to go to college, well, why don't you go to night class or something?" Then the war broke out. That was that.

TI: Well let's, let's go to the war. So let's, so before we go to the war let me just explain where people are. So you still have your family down in Brooks, down by Salem, the family farm.

ES: Yes.

TI: At this point your father, through your brother's name, has forty acres down there. You're at the Emanuel Hospital in Portland.

ES: I, just as soon as I graduate I went to work in Salem General Hospital.

TI: That's right, you worked down there for a while.

ES: For a year.

TI: And this is before you were married, because Arthur --

ES: This is before I was married.

TI: -- Arthur's still in Portland.

ES: In Portland.

TI: And you worked down there. Now, why did you go down to Salem and not stay up at Emanuel?

ES: Well, I thought I'd be coming home. Then I could come home to weekends or on my days off my dad would come after me, which is easier. And I thought about marrying him, sure, and we did get engaged finally in April of 1940. Got married in September 1940.

TI: And then that's when you moved back to, to Portland?

ES: Yeah, because he worked for his dad, and so we, we bought a home soon afterwards. But then our home was there when we were able to come back to Portland. I think that's the only reason we came, we did come home, because all the rest of the family got separated and went to Chicago and Detroit, and that's the Somekawa family.

TI: Because they all went to college and then they went to different places?

ES: That's right. Well, or they're still going to college.

TI: I see. Okay. But Arthur stayed because he was essentially helping with the family business, the fish company.

ES: That's right.

TI: And this is the Nichi Bei Fish Company on Third and Davis? This was the --

ES: Uh-huh.

TI: Okay.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright &copy; 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.