<Begin Segment 17>

PW: Tell me the name of your second husband and how you met him.

YW: Well, I met him in camp. He was the only one that was helping me. Because my husband was so busy up at the hospital helping, and he was a big help up there, but he didn't have time, I guess, to help me, so I was by myself. But in the meantime, John (...) was a neighbor, lived close by, and he knew that I was struggling. So he used to come and help me, he'd drop things off, and that's how I met him.

PW: And that's John Wada?

YW: Yeah. So when we went to Cleveland, oh yeah, that's right, when we went to Cleveland, he was in this group of people who, they worked together, with my husband, because there was a group of them. They went to this place where they were building trucks for the army, and he was one of them. So I used to see him, but I saw John more than I saw my own husband, so that's how we got acquainted.

PW: But Mr. Katayanagi, your first husband, they knew each other in Cleveland together.

YW: Yes.

PW: Okay, just to clarify.

YW: Yeah. So we were all friends at the same time.

PW: So when did you marry Mr. Wada?

YW: After we came back, like I said, when we came back and he was able to get this house...

PW: The house we're in now?

YW: And then while he was doing that, I went to Reno and I went through my divorce over there, and my stepmother was watching my children, she was wonderful. If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't have been able to do all that.

PW: Do you said that John helped you get this house, were you talking about the house we're in today?

YW: Uh-uh. Well, see, he helped, so he bought this house that I lived in, I moved in with him. And actually, we went to... oh, he actually thought that the house was too small for two children and everything, so he bought a bigger house in Oakland. He came home one day and he said, "Hey, I bought a bigger house."

PW: What neighborhood in Oakland?

YW: It's near the lake. Okay, Lynnie, what street was it? It was near the lake. And it was a big house, but we really didn't stay there very long because then my stepmother got sick. And I was spending all my time going back and forth from Oakland to Berkeley, from Oakland to Berkeley, and sometimes in the middle of the night. I'd go, and then I was still trying to work at the same time. So we had to sell that house and then we found this house, (but) by then she passed away, and so my dad was by himself. I wanted him to come and live with me, but he said he's always lived by himself, and he didn't want to bother anybody. So I bought this duplex, because we had an entrance from both sides, and he ate over here as far as his food was concerned. So he thought he was independent because he was living over there.

PW: What kind of work were you doing? You mentioned you were working again.

YW: Yeah, then I worked for the bank. I was a personnel officer for Wells Fargo.

PW: And what did John do?

YW: He was in the service part of the time, and then he worked, he was working originally before that at the Oakland airport. And then he went to work for the Department of Agriculture, and he worked there for a long time, Department of Agriculture. And he did a lot of making equipments for these people that were developing different kinds of foods, these scientists that were testing all the foods that came in from other countries, things like that. They needed specialty equipment and so they worked with him and he did a lot of sheet metal work, so he made all the equipment for the scientists, because otherwise they weren't able to get the equipment, it was special.

PW And you had a third child?

YW: [Points at someone in the room].

PW: Actually, tell me the name of all of your children.

YW: Kathryn, Kathryn who was born in Topaz. And then when I went to Cleveland, I had Diane, who became a director of animal control for Contra Costa County, and Lynn.

PW: Three girls.

YW: Three girls.

PW: And tell me, I'm kind of curious about your father's laundry. Did he keep it going, did he sell it?

YW: No, he actually went into partnership with my brother-in-law, my sister's husband. They became partners and then my father retired, that's when he came to live over here. But then he got sick over here, so he needed to go to the hospital, but he wouldn't go to a hospital. Because he was kind of reverting back to his old Japanese ways, he was speaking all Japanese by then, and he wanted his Japanese food. I couldn't put him into a nursing home out here because he wouldn't be able to talk to them or anything. And the only Japanese place was in Los Angeles, and I knew the head nurse there, she was a neighbor of ours. The doctor that was in Los Angeles was a former doctor that we used to live with. So that was the only place I could put my father. And we went down there every Friday night after work, John and I would go down to Los Angeles and then see my dad Friday night, Saturday, Sunday morning, and then we'd come back in time to go to work Monday. And we did that until the following, next year he passed away.

PW: Was that at Keiro?

YW: No. Oh, yes, Keiro. Oh, you know Keiro? Yes, that nursing home that's on the top of the hill near Boyle Heights, yes. How do you know that place?

PW: Because I lived in Boyle Heights also.

YW: Oh, really? Oh.

PW: So I know that you've been back to Topaz recently.

YW: Yes, for the opening.

PW: On the opening of the museum. What did you think about, and what was that experience like?

YW: Well, you know, the camp was our life, that's where my baby was born. Topaz is our history. And all my friends are gone, our generation's all gone, Isseis are all gone, and like I said, some of the young people that were like high school age, they don't remember the hardship part of it. There's nobody else to tell our story, then people aren't going to know about it, except for the museum. The museum is the one that's keeping up the things, like (what) our generation and I went through, so we kind of have to keep it alive, there's nobody else right now. I thank them for doing that.

<End Segment 17> - Copyright © 2019 Densho. All Rights Reserved.