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TL: When you and your husband got married, was your mother or sister able to come and be part of the celebration?

HN: No, just my father was here, and -- but let's see, my mother, my sister came back when, 1959. And we were married in 1950. So that's the first time I saw her. But my husband, he was in the navy reserve. And he had, they called him in December of '50, right after we got married. We were married in February, and he got called back to active duty in December. So they sent him to Japan, and he was able to meet my mother and my cousins and my sister. And he was over there for about a year and a half. So that was kind of nice that she, my mother got to meet my husband. And then I stayed with his parents at the farm in Veradale. It's an outskirt of Spokane.

TL: What kind of farming did they do?

HN: It was a truck farm. But he, they had mostly strawberry in the new, their new farm. But when they were living, when they had that farm in Hangman Creek, I think they had a big truck farm. But they had to move during the war.

TL: How does that fit in with, earlier we were talking about how people in Spokane didn't really have to move?

HN: But I think they (the government) wanted their piece of land to build housing, and that's why they had to move. But other farmers, they didn't have to move.

TL: Oh.

HN: So I guess they just wanted their land, so they had to (move).

TL: Now, your husband, he grew up in Spokane?

HN: Uh-huh.

TL: And so he was very, fairly American, Americanized because of schooling and so on. When you were getting to know each other, did the fact that you had spent seven years in Japan, did that ever affect your relationship?

HN: No. I don't think so 'cause we kind of knew each other when we were kids. And I knew his friends and he knew my friends, so it didn't really affect that. And then he -- my, the Wilsons, you know, the people that I stayed with for a while, her nephew knew my husband. They went to Catholic school together. And that's why Mrs. Wilson kind of, I don't know if she kind of arranged for us to meet or what, but it was, it was kind of nice that she knew him. And she kept saying, "Oh, he's such a nice boy," and this and that.

TL: Also are your husband's parents, were they from Japan or --

HN: Uh-huh. Yeah, they were from Japan. And they both, they were living in Hangman Creek. And then they both moved to Veradale. And my husband, I think, yeah, he was commuting from Veradale because he went to Gonzaga Prep and Gonzaga University. So when he was in the navy I stayed with his parents, and I was helping them out with the strawberry, picking strawberry and things like that.

<End Segment 21> - Copyright © 1999 Densho. All Rights Reserved.