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Title: Karen Yoshitomi Interview
Narrator: Karen Yoshitomi
Interviewer: Barbara Yasui
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: January 23, 2023
Densho ID: ddr-densho-1000-527-4

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BY: So when and where did they marry?

KY: They married in Spokane in 1955.

BY: Okay. And so looking back at your mom's life, how do you think the incarceration affected her life?

KY: For Mom, I think things changed dramatically for her. I believe I shared with you earlier that when they went into camp, she went in with her brother and sister and mom and dad. During camp, Uncle George and Auntie Ruby both got married. So by the time they left camp, it was just Mom and Baachan and Jiichan. And, again, Mom left with the Kawaharas. And so the family was pretty broken up, if you will, went their separate ways. And I think it was a struggle for the family. In moving from Hayford to Spokane and being in the apartment, it was tough for Jiichan to get a job. And Baachan didn't work, Jiichan had very little education, and so he did a lot of manual labor. And so Mom helped out a lot. She went to work as soon as she could to help out. The lucky thing for me was that by the time Mom started working, Baachan and Jiichan had fully retired and they had moved in with us, and so we were all living under one roof. But I think it was hard on Mom just because she had to grow up really fast and things were tough.

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