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DG: I thought we would start kind of recapping a little bit about, you know, the institution of marriage and your dating and courtship. Toru, tell me, do you remember when you first met Kiyo?

TS: Well, I think I first met Kiyo when she was with two of her best friends, Kaz and Mika Hayano and she was a senior at Roosevelt High School. I think we met at one of these young people's conferences or one of these mixers or I don't precisely recall.

DG: Do you remember your first date?

TS: I think I was invited to her graduation dance at Roosevelt High School. I don't know whether I'm correct or not. [Laughs] That was 1937.

DG: And so then. So you knew each other before she came to the University. You were already at the University at that time.

TS: That is correct.

DG: Uh-huh. Well, Kiyo, let's talk a little bit about dating in general and in those days.

KS: Ah, I don't think it was any different than it is today. You met and, and the dance that Toru was talking about, was a dance that my, that my friend graduated high school the same time that I did and she was -- her school, Broadway, was having a dance that night, right after I graduated. When I graduated from Roosevelt, we didn't have a dance right after the graduation exercises, so in my pretty lace gown that I wore to my graduation exercise, I went to this dance with my friend. And I had to bring a date, so I had met Toru oh, a few weeks before and so I asked him if he would like to go to it. And it was very nice. We, dating was like that.

DG: So you had dated quite a bit.

KS: Yes, uh-huh.

DG: In the early '30s.

KS: Yes, uh-huh.

DG: In high school?

KS: Well, I was through high school then, and then in the summer time when I worked -- I worked in a home and for the most part, I lived, the family lived in Whidbey Island. So I was away from Seattle, or away from town and I know I didn't see Toru very much.

DG: But even before you met him, you, you...

KS: Oh yes, yes. There were, there were a lot of dances and picnics and, and roller skating parties and...

DG: Mostly in the Japanese community?

KS: In, most, yes. And it, and different clubs and churches, young people's groups would sponsor all of these dances and... and many times we would just go as a group. We didn't particularly have a special person that we went with, we just all went together and we all danced.

DG: Did you date any Caucasians?

KS: No, we didn't. None of my friends did and not since I left...

DG: Did you think about dating them?

KS: Well, in Seattle, in any, in none of these groups were there any Caucasians. They were all...

DG: But at school?

KS: At school yes, but at school, I was studying and as soon as I got through with my studies I had to go home and work, so... there was little or no social, socials at school that I had a chance to participate in. When I went to Roosevelt, about the only groups that I was able to do anything with was the a cappella choir which I belonged to and the music group that participated in concerts and light opera, something like that.

<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.