<Begin Segment 14>

TI: Let's talk a little bit about your relationship with Tsuchino. Because through the Shinto wedding, you were married, and so the two of you thought of yourselves as a married couple.

MF: Uh-huh. The military didn't, though.

TI: Yeah, the military didn't, but you and Tsuchino did. How did things evolve or change now that you were married?

MF: I'm not sure what changed.

TI: Yeah, or were there any changes? Now that you were married, did the relationship, you were spending more time together, she doesn't have the benefit of being with her family more, she's just with you.

MF: Yeah.

TI: So now that you're more, I guess, she in particular, more dependent on you, how did that change your relationship?

MF: I don't know if it changed it, it may have made it stronger. Of course, we were always very close together, it was always kind of we were like a unit. So I didn't perceive anything different. Now, she may have, the thing is, she tends to be more sensitive, I guess, and she kind of said something kind of... I'm trying to remember the term she used a couple of times. But mainly kind of oblivious to a lot of things.

TI: Did she get, like, was it a roller coaster for her? As you went through all these things with the military about the secret marriage and then possibly getting court martialed, then not being court martialed, it feels like a roller coaster ride.

MF: Oh, I'm sure she was worried about it, but she never said anything.

TI: Oh, she didn't get, like, get really emotional?

MF: No, that's not Tsuchino, she doesn't get emotional. I keep kidding her, I think she's got samurai blood in her, she just sits there.

TI: Very stoic about those things.

MF: Well, you know, she used to tell me that the samurai would, he would basically not have a meal in three days, and he'd walk down the street with a toothpick in his mouth. [Laughs]

TI: That's good. So you mentioned that perhaps your base commander was upset that you have political connections and went over him.

MF: Yeah.

TI: So how did that impact your work at the base?

MF: It was, well... the way the military operates is if you keep your head down and just do your job, they kind of let you, leave you alone. It was, where the impact seemed to come in is that I never got another promotion the time I was in the military, I basically... at that time, I had two stripes and stuff, and was an airman second class, E-3, they call it. And I just went to work, did my job, couple of times because of rotations and stuff, I was in charge of the whole radar maintenance unit, but I'm still... and it was normally a job that would require tech sergeant or a master sergeant and stuff. But still, it didn't make any difference, didn't get any promotions.

TI: And was it because of this whole thing in terms of... I guess what I'm trying to think, I'm curious, there must have been something in your file that said something in terms of that, perhaps?

MF: They never (said), I don't know. I'm assuming, basically. Obviously they knew that there was political influence because they were ordered to send me to Okinawa and then their orders were cancelled, I'm sure they didn't know why we got from higher headquarters, "Don't do this."

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2016 Densho. All Rights Reserved.