<Begin Segment 19>

BN: So you mentioned you eventually found housing there. What else did you do at that time as a single guy? Were you involved in civic clubs and that kind of thing?

RO: No, no.

BN: Or were you just working?

RO: Well, I was working but I became friends with people who worked there, so we would do things together.

BN: What sort of things would you do at that time, recreationally?

RO: I think we bowled.

BN: Bowled, right, that was very popular.

RO: And we'd get together and drink. And that's how I met my first wife, she was one of that group. She fortunately liked me, so when we got married, that lasted ten or so years, and then she finally decided she didn't want to be married with me anymore so we split.

BN: Did you have children?

RO: Yeah, we had two. So it was, everybody else was white except for me, and then we had our own group of friends. We hung out together. So I really went from all Asian mostly, Japanese Asians, and then I went to a completely white world. I lived in that white world for, I don't know, maybe fifteen years.

BN: Because I know there were some Japanese communities, I mean, famously there was Seabrook Farms in New Jersey, there were folks in New York, but you kind of didn't interact with them.

RO: Yeah, Seabrook is pretty south of where we were.

BN: Yeah, pretty far. You're closer to New York, probably.

RO: Yeah. So after I got divorced, and I was looking for another woman, I eventually hooked up with the JAs in New York. But they were so different. I don't know whether you had experience, but they speak with a different accent and they're... anyway...

BN: Yeah, so at that time, it was still fairly unusual for Japanese to marry non-Japanese. So I'm just wondering, how did her family accept it, did your family accept it, and how was that?

RO: Yeah. Her parents were from, her father was, well, both of them were from Europe. He was actually, he came from Europe, and the wife's, her mother's parents came from Europe as well. So he was in Europe, typical white. So they were fine.

BN: What country were they from?

RO: He was from... the country we fought World War II against.

BN: Oh, Germany.

RO: Germany. And she was from the England area.

BN: So they were also immigrants, in a sense, almost like your dad.

RO: Exactly like mine.

BN: In fact, you were more American than they were because you had a Nisei mom.

RO: Right, yeah.

BN: What about your family?

RO: I guess they didn't have any, they didn't say anything negative, but I was on the East Coast and they were on the West Coast.

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 2021 Densho. All Rights Reserved.