Densho Digital Repository - Susumu Nakanishi Interview (Densho ID: ddr-densho-1000-496-12)

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BY: So I do want to ask you about how you got your wife to come to Chicago. So you now are in Chicago working at this cancer research lab, so were you writing letters or keeping in touch with your future wife? What happened? How did you get her to come to Chicago?

SN: She received a scholarship from University of Chicago Social Work. So I knew her at Doshisha, so as soon as she came, we got married.

BY: So did you have anything to do with her getting a scholarship at the social work?

SN: Oh, yes. [Laughs]

BY: Tell us about that.

SN: Well, there was a need of a social worker, and so I recommended a candidate for social work at the University of Chicago, so she came.

BY: I am so impressed at not only your luck, in that you met some really wonderful, important people, but also your skill or your ability to create opportunities for yourself and your wife. It's amazing. So did you get married in Chicago or did you go back...

SN: Yes.

BY: Okay, so she came?

SN: As soon as she came.

BY: Like that day? [Laughs] So where did you get married?

SN: '55.

BY: No, where? In a church?

SN: Southlawn Methodist Church where I attended every Sunday, and Reverend and Mrs. Jones kindly held the wedding for us, so that's where we got married.

BY: So tell about your early married life in Chicago. So now she came, you got married, so where did you live? Tell us about your early life together.

SN: We lived in the faculty apartment, which is not very expensive, so we could make our living there. Initially, there was a big building, and we had apartment. But when we got married, they kindly gave me a house, faculty house, paying about the same rent. So very, very lucky, yes.

BY: And so you were doing research at the lab, and she was working or teaching in the social work department?

SN: No Japanese allowed to work, even at the university. So she stayed home, I'm the only one earning.

BY: So after she got this, so she got a scholarship but then she didn't use it? I'm a little confused.

SN: Well, just social work, I don't know how much she got, not too much. So anyway, we had the university housing which isn't very expensive, so we could live there.