<Begin Segment 31>

MN: I'm gonna fast-forward a little bit, and you married Misaye Butsumyo in 1948. How long were you married to her?

BT: She passed away in '62, so it's about fourteen years.

MN: What happened to her?

BT: She had a cerebral hemorrhage.

MN: Now, when Misaye passed away, how many children did you have?

BT: Four.

MN: So now you became a single parent like your mother.

BT: Yeah.

MN: What was it like raising four, four daughters?

BT: Yeah, four daughters. Well, the hard part was you had to go out and buy clothes for them, or what does a girl need? But one of my sisters-in-law helped me out there. Yeah, she, she was married, but she didn't have any kids, so she kind of was there for my daughters.

MN: Did you get a newer appreciation for what your mother went through?

BT: Yeah, that's when I realized what, what my mother had to go through, 'cause what she had to go through was ten times worse than what I had to go through.

MN: Then in 1996, when your kids were older, you married a second time, to Yoshiko Mori. Share with us how you met her, and what was that like?

BT: Well actually, marriage wasn't on my mind, but I was looking for some companion, go to dinner or shows. Anyway, the way I met her was, I was working, we were working on the Gila reunion for the 1995 reunion, and I really didn't pay attention to who -- because I just assumed a lady would have a friend, either married or have a friend, so I never paid attention. Anyway, I found out that she was single, so -- on the last workshop before the reunion -- so going, after the workshop finished, going home, I asked if she wanted to go out to dinner 'cause... well, she says her brother was staying with her, so she's got to see how her brother, if he has something for dinner, so she'll call me back. So she went home and I went home, and she called me and says yeah, okay, her brother's okay. What, what started out to be a casual dinner date, and we ended up getting married.

MN: How did your children feel about you getting married a second time?

BT: They were happy for me. Yeah. They had their own family by then.

MN: Now, you and Misaye were married for fourteen years, how long were you married to Yo?

BT: About seven years, I think.

MN: And what happened to Yo?

BT: She had cancer.

MN: Since I asked you about how you met Yo, share with us how you met Misaye?

BT: Okay. [Laughs] That was back in '46, during the holiday season. We didn't have cars or anything then, but this one friend of mine that, he came up to me right before the holiday season, says, he says that his father says he can borrow his car, so, "Let's go double dating." I say, "Oh, okay." I only knew one girl in south L.A. there, so I agreed to go before I even had a date. Anyway, so went down there and asked her out. She said okay, so we went out. Yeah, then a few months later he says he got the car again, "Let's go out..." I don't know any other girls, you know. So I says, "Are you gonna take the same girl out?" He said no, he's says gonna ask somebody else. I says, I said, "You mind if I ask her?" He says, "No, go ahead." They're just good friends. So that started it. Yeah, so we ended up getting married.

MN: But you didn't ask her out. [Laughs]

BT: Well, yeah. I says, "Well, why don't you call her up and see if she'll go out with me?" So he says okay, so he gets on the phone to ask. Then he comes back and says, "She wants to talk to you." She said that if I wanted to date her that I should ask. [Laughs] So I got on the phone, and she said okay.

MN: And the rest is history.

BT: And the rest is history.

<End Segment 31> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.