<Begin Segment 9>

BY: All right, so you graduated from UW with a degree in nursing. Then what did you do after that?

JK: Well, I got married before I graduated, so actually my nursing career was really short. And I worked at Harborview Hospital for maybe six to eight months after I graduated.

BY: Okay. And by then you were married?

JK: Yeah, I was.

BY: So what's your husband's name and when...

JK: His name is Henry Akio Kumasaka.

BY: Okay, and when was he born?

JK: He was born three years before me. So 1934 he was born.

BY: Okay, and where did he grow up?

JK: He grew up in Seattle.

BY: And how did you meet?

JK: At college.

BY: Do you recall, was it at a dance or did you have a class together?

JK: Well, you know, in those days, the Japanese kids would take their bag lunches and they'd eat in the library, everyone. I mean, there was no lunchroom or anything so... well, maybe there was a lunchroom, but all of us came from home, and we took our bag lunches and ate in the library, and that's where I met him.

BY: And what was your first impression of him?

JK: Well, I thought he was very sweet and very kind, and very nice-looking.

BY: Okay. And so then tell me about your courtship and marriage then. What happened?

JK: Oh. Well, a lot of it revolved around the fact that we were at the university together. So we would go off at lunchtime or after school, and we'd go down to different locations just to see the scenery and stuff like that. And that's kind of how I got to know him.

BY: And where did his family live in Seattle?

JK: They lived on, in the CD.

BY: And so he was a little older than you, so he must have graduated before you did?

JK: Yeah, he did.

BY: And then what did he do?

JK: He was an engineer. Where was his job? I think it was for Boeing.

BY: Okay.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.