<Begin Segment 6>

BN: So to back up a bit, how did your parents then meet?

LH: How did they get together?

BN: Yeah.

LH: They were part of that huge group of Niseis that knew each other, right? Just hung out together. Yeah, I think... and they were dating. My mother had a number of different beaux. But she somehow landed with him and was sort of, like, they were part of that social circle because can you imagine four daughters, right, the four sisters, they were in it. So they, I don't know exactly how they met, but they made this decision to marry right before the war, they just decided. And they were pretty much, they were pretty much in love, I think. I just found these notes that they were writing back and forth to each other when my father went to Minidoka to help my grandparents move from Minidoka to Denver. And so I never knew it, but her nickname was Chubby. Oh, she would never have allowed me to ever say that again. Chubs, Chubby.

BN: But that was his nickname for her.

LH: [Nods]. So, you know, then my brother was born in Boulder, Colorado, in '43, and I was born in Denver in '45. Does that answer most of what...

BN: And then many Nisei couples did this, married, like, right before the war to guarantee they'd be able to stay together.

LH: Yeah, exactly.

BN: So uncertain at that point in time.

LH: So they could go through the evacuation together, yeah.

BN: And then before we get to Denver, I know that it seemed like a bunch of your mom's family ends up going to Chicago initially, or the Midwest?

LH: No. Most of the family... so Hisa got out on an educational leave and went to Rockford College in Illinois. She married Ed and some point, Ed Kiyohara at some point, so I don't know what happened. I'd have to ask the Kiyoharas what happened after that. And so my grandmother stayed in Minidoka and (Tatsue) was with her in Minidoka. And then he and... I don't know whether he married Yuri in camp or after camp, I think after camp. And he ended up in Chicago, but my grandmother came to live with (us) in '45. Katsuko, of course, was in Japan. And Mike, I don't know what happened to him, I don't know, actually, I'd have to ask.

BN: So do most of the Nakatas end up back in Seattle, then, eventually?

LH: Yeah. Then everybody migrated back to Seattle with the exception of the Horiuchis. And I think my father really wanted to go back. He was really plugged into that community, he really wanted to go back, but my mother prevailed.

[Interruption]

BN: Do you know why they chose Denver in particular versus wherever, Chicago? Was there a connection there or was it just purely a school thing?

LH: No, just a school thing, happenstance. And then he managed to get the job in Denver.

BN: Once they were there, they just stayed, basically.

LH: They stayed, right.

BN: Then you were born there.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.