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AI: Well, let me bring you up a little bit further in time to the time when you were in central California, and Jack's parents had invited you to move to that area voluntarily, so-called "voluntary evacuation." And you were getting ready for evacuation, but also, at the same time you were getting ready to be married in July of 1942. Can you tell me about that time?

KM: Yeah. That was a hectic time. [Laughs] Yes. Well, first we decided for our date. And Jack and I said that well, since it's closest to Fourth of July, let's get married Fourth of July, then we would always remember that. But you know, Fourth of July, it was a Saturday that year, and so we had to wait until Monday until the license bureau opened. And so we got, we went there to get our license and got our blood tests. And I thought, "Well, I've been a dressmaker, and I've always dreamed of designing my own gown." And so I had all this idea in my mind, and here I was evacuated. I didn't have any equipments with me, and I had no way of going to buy materials that I liked. But the only place we could go was Visalia, 'cause Fresno was a no-no. It was restricted. So Jack took me out to Visalia and we looked around all the dress shop. And at that time they didn't have petite sizes and things like that, and so the dresses were either too big or too small. And then if I liked the top, I didn't like the bottom and so forth. And so I finally ended up at Lerner's shop, and that was a, have you ever heard of Lerner's shop? Well that was the last place that I would have gone for any kind of [Laughs] shopping, but that's where I landed. And I found a dress, and I put it on. It wasn't so bad, there was no alteration or anything, so I said -- and the color looked pretty good -- so I said, "Well, I'll just take this. I'm not happy with it, but I'll just take it." And so I brought that home and then I borrowed the shoes from my cousin. And a garter [Laughs], all that goes with it. And we went to Visalia and that's where we got married. And we met with a pas -- Reverend Kawasaki, who is now deceased. But the church was already closed. But so he said, "Well, my daughter can play the piano. And so she'll play the processional and the recessional and we'll make it the best we could." And so we were all lined up and ready and then all of a sudden I said, "Jack, am I gonna have a flower?" And he said, "Oh, I forgot." [Laughs] And so hurriedly he went to get a nosegay. And it was right around the corner. So we got that ready. And my dad took me down the aisle. And then after we got to the altar, I don't understand this Buddhist chanting. And then so whenever he said we were supposed to say, "Hai," well, he kinda went like this, nudged us to tell us to say "Hai," you know. And so I told Jack later on, "You know I really don't know what kind of vow I took." [Laughs] "I didn't understand what he said." But be that as it may, we finished that. And after we finished we had a family, our group picture taken. And we invited Reverend Kawasaki and the family to take a picture with us. So that was our whole wedding.

Shortly after, we went to a Chinese restaurant and we had a Chinese lunch I guess it was. And then we said, "Well, now we're gonna come home." And then when I was coming home, my -- oh, I forgot to tell you that we only could take two cars. And then we were limited to what road. We had to draw up a map ahead to see which road we were gonna take, and what time. And by the time we took the four nakodos, that's two for him and two for my side, well, there was no room in the car with my mother and my father on both sides. And so, my brothers drove the car, and Jack drove one car. And so both, one sisters on each side was left. They couldn't go. They wouldn't fit into the car. And so we went. And my sister-in-law, she said that well it was a hot, July, it was awfully hot. And then all the water cooler, swamp coolers, they were all closed and for the duration. And so, oh, it was 108 degrees that particular day. And I remember my husband during the ceremony, he took (out) his handkerchief and he wiped his brow and said, "Boy, this is hot." [Laughs] And so, you know I don't know whether we even listened to what the [Laughs] minister was saying. But that was all finished. And then when we were coming home, each of the two nakodos, the baishakunin, his matchmaker went into his car, and my side went into our, my brother's car. And then so when Jack's baishakunin went, this lady, the lady says she gets carsick. So without asking me or anything, she sat in the front with Jack. And so therefore I didn't have any seat to sit. So I went to my brother's side, car, and there was room there, 'cause I had been there going. So I, and then Mama says, "Hey," she says, "You don't belong here. She says, "You belong in the other car." [Laughs] But I said, "Well she won't move." So I said, "I came over here. And I can just go home." But anyway, they finally moved over and switched around, and I was able to come home with him. But everything was just upside down, because everything was not really planned. Well, if I, when on our fiftieth anniversary our kids wanted to write a story about the day of our wedding. And so I wrote all this, and they just laughed. And they said, "Well, boy, I would've just, or Sanseis, they were really very open.

But anyway, we came home. And then my sister-in-law had prepared, she said it was hot, so she prepared ice cream. And oh, we were so thirsty. And when we ate the ice cream, it was salty. She had done something that the salt poured into the ice cream part. And we had to heap sugar on it [Laughs] to eat it. And that was another hilarious part of our wedding. And then, that night, on our first night at home, I slept in the front bedroom with my husband, and then, 'course my in-laws slept (in the next room).

And then people had given us different gifts. And so we said, well Jack and I went into our room and we said, "Well let's open and see what it is and make a recording of who gave what," so forth so we will have a record of, to return, the Japanese custom is to always return. Well all of a sudden my stepmother called him. And then, so Jack went over and she says, "Bring all your envelopes," 'cause they gave us monetary gifts and so it was in an envelope, and card. And she says, "Bring all that back. Have you opened it?" And so we said, "Well, we just started to open." But she said, "You bring it back." And so he said, "Why? They gave it to us." And then she said, "It's because we did all the corresponding and the kosai. That's why they're returning it to us 'cause we did it first. So it doesn't belong to you." So he said, "Okay." And, we didn't question it. Jack said, "Okay." And he came back and got the whole thing, took it and we never saw it and we don't know who gave us how much or anything. That was the way that our marriage started out. And so finally, when I told my father he went to his side of a nakodo and asked them, "Is this the custom of the central California?" And he said, "Oh, no. That belongs to Jack and Kay." So he says, "I'll go and talk to them. And he did, but there was no result. So we just never did. So to this day we don't know who gave us how much. And so when their family got married, well, we had no way of finding out whether to go, or, as long as we don't get the invitation, we just let it go.

<End Segment 26> - Copyright © 1999 Densho. All Rights Reserved.