<Begin Segment 15>

TI: Well, so when you were working at Lewis & Clark, as you are getting older, like you're in your, now, mid to late twenties, was there pressure for you to get married? Did people think that you should get married?

MN: You know, my father, I think I must have said to him when I was sixteen or something, when I spoke up once, I think, and I think I must have, might have mentioned that, "I'm not going to just get one of these marriage things," you know. Because, since my father was a widow and we didn't have a mother, I think I might have said something. But anyway, but along the way, I was, of course, nearing my thirties, or rather, I was already thirty. I hate to mention my age, but it's all right. [Laughs] Anyway, and this man called, apparently some well-meaning person... I'm not, well-meaning person, he called, and apparently my dad maybe in the course of... might be an acquaintance or something, called, and my dad of course, his excuse was he couldn't hear very well, and he wanted this person to talk to me.

TI: And this was a Japanese man?

MN: Japanese. Everybody spoke in Japanese. I had to speak to this man in Japanese.

TI: Okay, so he was an Issei man?

MN: Issei man. He was an Issei man.

TI: All right.

MN: And so he, I talked to him over the telephone, and he wanted to know... oh, he tried, not lecturing me, but to know what my status was. That my dad was getting along in years, and he had two unsettled daughters. And since I'm the oldest, he was wondering if he could help in some way. I think that was what... and he said he found someone, he knew of someone that he thought would be a suitable person, and a yoshi would be, since we didn't have any, there was no, my dad didn't have a son, so they figured that this yoshi could come and move into the house, I mean, get married and take the family name to carry on and move into the house and so forth. And I was rather appalled, and I said, "Well, not really, I'm really not interested. Thank you for calling, but I'm not interested, and thank you, and goodbye." And I had numerous calls off and on, on and on, sort of like a guilt put on, if you know what I mean.

TI: Now, did you ever meet this man? Did you know who he was talking about?

MN: I did meet... I think I, I'm trying to recall. I think I met him, and I might have gone out once, but that was it. And it wasn't... this person, well, I don't want to say too much because, you know, but anyway, when the man called back and wanted to... I said, "He's a very nice person, but I'm not interested." But anyway, this man kept calling, the Issei man kept calling and calling, and after... he didn't give up, though. He called and said that he would, he's coming over. He never came over to our house, never talked to my father or anything. And he said he was going to come over, and he would like to talk to me, and would I please, he would park the car outside, and would I please come and sit in the car and talk to him. So when he did arrive, I sat in the car with him, and he, of course, put the guilt on me, that my father would feel unsettled until both his daughters were married, and especially the oldest one, not exactly obligated, but, to get married first. So then he kind of related about the, several marriage go-betweens that he had done that worked out well, and he mentioned this last party, this girl had several thousand dollars or whatever it was, he gave me a monetary amount. And then he asked me, "How much do you have saved in your bank account?" So I told him... I knew what I had, and I certainly wasn't going to tell him. And I told him, "I'm very sorry, but I don't feel comfortable in mentioning to you about my savings." And I didn't tell him, and I told him, "I'm very sorry, but I'm just not interested." He told me that, "You are a very rude, rude person." I guess he felt, here he was trying to help somebody and trying to help his friend, I assume he figured my father was, and help things out, and here I was not going along with this plan. But anyway, I was told that I was a very rude person. And all this time we're talking in Japanese. It's very difficult... how many years has it been since I've been out of Japanese school, and how many... I talked to my dad in Japanese, because, as I said, he never spoke English to us. But his conversation naturally is very... what would you say? Brief. He doesn't go into a lot of details or anything.

TI: Going back to this man, what was the importance of the money? I mean, was he expecting to get paid to do this? Or I'm not quite sure why it mattered how much money you had in the bank.

MN: Oh, this man? I don't know.

TI: Why was he so interested?

MN: I don't know whether the bride was supposed to bring the money along, or whether that I had enough money that, regardless of whether the gentleman that he was proposing for me would bring along his property, too, I have no idea. I don't know why he asked. Unless there was some token that my father would give him.

TI: Now, so what was your father's reaction when he found out that you said no?

MN: Nothing. My father didn't say anything. No, he didn't think anything about it. My father figured it was my decision, and if I didn't want to go along... I don't think he had any part of it. I think this man probably, this Issei man suggested to my father, noticed that, "You have two daughters, unmarried, and I have a nice young man that would probably be a good son-in-law for you." That's my impression, I'm not sure. But, so I don't know what kind of reputation I had. I might have not used the correct Japanese, you know. And I tried to speak very feminine-type. The male, they speak very, not harsh, but their language is a little different from the women.

TI: That's a good story.

MN: So I probably had a very bad reputation about being a very incorrigible woman. [Laughs]

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2014 Densho. All Rights Reserved.