<Begin Segment 15>

BN: So going back to UH, you mentioned that campus really changed when the returning servicemen started coming back. Can you talk a little bit about that change?

JK: Okay. Up until then, we had very few males on campus, and those males were those who were either at work at Pearl Harbor, or those who couldn't qualify to serve. And so, but when they started coming back, they were a very different kind of person, because I think they had been through so much. We had vets dorm on campus, wooden structures where they dormed. And I got to know these men quite well because we participated in student government (activities). And, of course, they were very pushy people at that time, and they would go and complain to the administration for this and that, which never used to happen before. They had big ideas. I remember we had a big, big carnival, and this was all led by the returning veterans. And when you sit down with them, they wouldn't talk about their war experiences, but they were talking over here and I'm over here kind of thing. But it was a time that I had to grow up real fast. And for me, having a man or a boy in school was already a big thing because I went to the Priory and I didn't have a father. So, oh, big deal. We used to go on moonlight picnics, ukulele in hand, and oh, the guys were wanting to have a very good time. They went through the stresses of war and needed to just get out of it. It was none of this "we date" kind of thing, it was just a group. And we had good times. Here again, I was lucky. [Laughs]

BN: Did you meet your husband?

JK: No.

BN: Because was he was Aala?

JK: Aala, but you see, I met him during the war. And we had a prom at St. Andrews. I didn't know any other men. So because we were learning to dance. (Toshio), later my husband, to ask whether he would go with me to my prom. 'Cause otherwise I didn't know any boys. [Laughs]

[Interruption]

BN: You were talking about going to the prom with your future husband and these picnics and so on with the kids at the university, returning servicemen. Were other of your friends from Aala also at the university? Did that kind of, did those friendships kind of continue?

JK: Maggie Awamura was there. Not many of us went on to college at that time. My husband went to college after he returned from the service.

BN: Did your husband go into the service?

JK: He was drafted. He couldn't go at the time that the 442nd was organized, because he was laid up for two years. Couldn't go to work or do anything for two years because of a bad back. He had surgery.

BN: So during, when you went to the prom together, that was before he was...

JK: No, he was already with a bad back.

BN: Right. But he got drafted afterwards?

JK: Yes. And he served in the Philippines interrogating prisoners of war.

BN: So he was MIS?

JK: MIS. But when my kids ask him, "Daddy, what did you do in the war?" He says, "I went bowling every day." That's what he used to answer. Partly true. He bowled a 300. But he had to do his work, but the only other thing he could do was bowling.

BN: He got good at it, I guess.

JK: But I guess he was kind to those enemy soldiers, because in my apartment I have paintings that they had done for him on parachute silk. The Red Cross provided the ink. But he felt sorry for some, he gave some of them food that he wasn't supposed to give and that kind of stuff, and treated them with dignity I think. He also asked the lieutenant whether he could, before being mustered out, (...) go to Japan. The guy said, "Okay, write your papers." So he wrote his papers and went to Japan, used all the money he had and bought all the things he could buy with that money, food supplies, and walked up and down the village. He had never met his relatives. Asking for the relatives by name. They were so embarrassed to have him, so they put him up in the attic. [Laughs] But they were very happy to take whatever he brought them.

BN: Why were they embarrassed?

JK: Huh?

BN: Why were they embarrassed?

JK: Because here's a Japanese guy in an American uniform asking for them? That's the enemy.

BN: I see. But he came there again, so...

JK: Yeah. And subsequent to that, whenever we went to Japan, they always talked about that. Always. Because it was at a time when they didn't have anything.

BN: And then after that (he) returned.

JK: Returned, and then went to school.

BN: Were you keeping in touch with him during --

JK: (Yes), he used to write letters. And because he was in MIS, he went to Snelling, and then he was... he served in the Philippines and went to Japan, and upon discharge, went to school using the GI Bill.

BN: But during the time he was away, were you kind of girlfriend/boyfriend at that point?

JK: Yeah, kind of like. But he's also a neighbor, and he's my friend's brother. But I did go out with other people.

BN: And I wanted to just follow up with UH, you mentioned your friend Maggie was there also. Was Dan also...

JK: No.

BN: And did you meet him also?

JK: Maggie was teaching already at the university when Dan, she and Dan met.

BN: So this was before.

JK: Yeah, this is before, and she used to go around with this one guy, and he used to hang around. So she says, "Jane, you go with him, I'll go with this guy," kind of thing. [Laughs] We had a very close relationship, and I remember when I had the mumps, she (came) and she said, "I want the mumps, too. I want to touch you." And she touches me like this [indicates sides of face] and she touches her own. [Laughs] She did get it. She got a very serious one. We were very good friends.

BN: So she met Dan later.

JK: She was in the speech department of the UH when Dan met her. And I remember going to her wedding and visiting her in Washington when Dan was a student. And we were students in New York, so we used to go down there and stay with them.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.