<Begin Segment 7>

[Translated from Japanese]

NM: Did you visit the dressmaker's shop?

TF: Yes, she was a friend of mine. She had the dressmaking shop by the base in Kasugahara. She probably had a lot of female customers.

NM: Did Michael and his boss happen to stop by there?

TF: That is not where they came. I met the lady when she visited the shop. She invited me over, and I went over to her house. Mike and his boss stopped by there on the way to Fukuoka. The husband probably had to come by for some reason.

NM: I see. That was in 1956.

TF: At the beginning of 1957.

NM: What was your first impression of him?

TF: I was ignoring him. [Laughs] I don't think we talked.

NM: You studied English at school.

TF: Just a little.

NM: Were you able to speak some English?

TF: I didn't really have to.

NM: So you didn't talk to each other at all?

TF: Right. He didn't say anything. I am not talkative with strangers either.

NM: Weren't you interested in him at all? [Laughs]

TF: I didn't even care if I was interested or not.

NM: You were not expecting to meet an American soldier there.

TF: I wasn't.

NM: It just happened.

TF: It did.

NM: Our director interviewed Michael last week. He said he fell in love with you head over heels at the first sight. [Laughs]

TF: [Laughs] Guys always say that, don't they?

NM: The admiration was not mutual. [Laughs] So you met each other there. How did you end up dating with each other?

TF: Mike and other fellow soldiers came out to the city just a few times a month. They were stationed at a radar base on the top of a remote mountain named Sefurisan. They worked at the base for a couple of weeks and took some days off to come down the mountain. They didn't need to. I guess they wanted to come down to the city to look around. They didn't get to come down very often. He send a message to me and asked me out when he came down.

NM: He sent you a message through his friend every time he came down the mountain. "Tsuchino, would you go on a date with me?"

TF: He sometimes asked me out.

NM: How did you feel?

TF: I didn't have any places I particularly wanted to visit. I didn't really want to go anywhere with him either. The first date was at a puppet show. Many different kinds of entertainers were invited to perform in rural areas in those days. We went on the first date when a puppet show was in town.

NM: Just two of you?

TF: That was a popular spot with many people coming to visit. I saw some women there too. That was our first date. I sometimes went to Fukuoka to see him after that.

NM: Did you see many couples of a Japanese woman and an American soldier then?

TF: I think there were quite a few around the base. My dressmaker friend opened her western-style dress shop because there were many customers. Her business seemed to be doing well.

NM: I see. So you started to go out together. Did your family in Kasuga village know you were dating an American soldier?

TF: I initially didn't tell them. [Laughs]

NM: [Laughs] Why didn't you? You thought they would...

TF: They would be upset.

NM: They would be opposed to the relationship?

TF: I didn't think we would have their blessing. My brother, no, my uncle rather. He was killed in action in Burma during the war. That didn't help either.

NM: I can see why.

TF: I was hesitant too.

NM: So you initially didn't tell anyone. [Laughs] You just saw him in Fukuoka. Did you communicate with each other in English?

TF: Yes, we managed to. We both had a dictionary and tried to talk to each other. I'm still amazed that we understood each other. It somehow worked.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2016 Densho. All Rights Reserved.