<Begin Segment 14>

MN: Now, were you still in Manzanar when the war ended in August 1945?

KK: Yeah.

MN: How did you hear about the news?

KK: Well, I was happy about it. How did I hear? Well, I guess when it came out, everybody knew about it. Radio...

MN: I mean, were people in Manzanar, the camp, were they celebrating?

KK: Oh, yeah, I guess we were all happy that was ended. But we don't know what was going to happen.

MN: Do you remember what month you left Manzanar?

KK: Gee, when was it the war ended?

MN: August.

KK: August. So we must have left right after in the fall.

MN: Now, Akira's younger sister Mary got married before you did.

KK: One week before.

MN: Did you go to her wedding?

KK: Yeah.

MN: What was that like?

KK: Oh, nice. She got married at the Quaker... let's see. I think it was the Quaker home that the, it was the gathering place of people of Quaker faith that were helping the Japanese people. So they had people staying at their place until they found a place to go or something like that. So they had a pretty big house, so she had the wedding there.

MN: Where did you and Akira get married?

KK: Oh, we got married at the home where my sister stayed, Mrs. Porter's house. She said it was okay for us to get married there. So we had Reverend Nicholson, remember him, you met him? No? But you've heard of him. Well, he officiated at our wedding.

MN: Now, this is right after the war. Were you able to afford a wedding dress?

KK: Yeah, a cheap one. [Laughs] But I was able to.

MN: Where did you get your wedding dress?

KK: Gee, I don't know whether it was Sears, Montgomery, one of those places.

MN: Who took care of the wedding reception?

KK: Hmm?

MN: The wedding reception.

KK: Oh, we kind of had it over at Mrs. Porter's. She arranged everything for us.

MN: What did Mrs. Porter give you as a wedding present?

KK: Oh, she gave us a sterling silver set. It was, at that time, of course, about two hundred dollars or more. But now, I think it's worth more, I'm not sure.

MN: Were you able to have a honeymoon?

KK: Yeah. We went on a honeymoon to her sister's place in Hermosa Beach. The sister let us use her home in Hermosa Beach as our wedding present.

MN: How did you get to Hermosa Beach? Did you have a car?

KK: Yeah. You know, before the war broke out, Frank left his car at one place where he worked. And this Mr. Tannos, he's Syrian, he told Frank he could leave his car and he would take it out to drive every now and then and keep it in shape. So he left it there. So when he came back, it was all ready to, he was ready to drive it and everything. So he got his license and started driving right away. So he was lucky that way. Well, he had some things stored at a Japanese community center in Venice someplace. And his mother's koto was stolen, and some other things were stolen, too. Shamisen was stolen.

MN: But all your items that you left --

KK: Left with Mrs. Porter was there. So we were, my mother was able to get everything; she was lucky.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.