<Begin Segment 27>

SY: I want to get on to your being very active in the San Fernando JACL, but maybe we can get back to this question. I wanted to ask you about that because the JACL has a history of Tule Lake.

NG: I know. In fact, when I joined JACL my dad was not very happy 'cause he, he remembers all the, one of the reasons, well, all the, that they were not looking out for him or the community, he felt.

SY: So let's, let's go back to, 'cause you went to UCLA and you were, were you in a sorority, Japanese American sorority at UCLA?

NG: Yeah. Well, just the last year, as a senior. I don't know why, this, my friend and I just out of a whim said let's, let's join. So we --

SY: And what was that like?

NG: It was like, I just thought it was funny, this little ritual, little singing. I don't know, we were just like, "Why did we do this?" I mean, they were nice. It was fun. The dances were fun. People were nice and had fun activities, but it was, like, corny. But, and we were seniors. I mean, what, it wasn't like this is, it wasn't something that we took seriously. It's funny because even my, my daughter, she -- my older, my younger daughter would not join, but my older daughter -- joined the Thetas and, in fact, was pledge mom. And so one of the, what do you call, socials, pledge mom things, whatever they had, presents, Yas and I went, and he's going, "Oh my god, is this serious?" [Laughs] But...

SY: But he, but you...

NG: But it was, I think they have, it's fun.

SY: Now, you mentioned Yas, so tell, Yas is obviously your husband, so give us his full name.

NG: Yasunori.

SY: Yasunori.

NG: Gohata.

SY: Gohata. And so he grew up in, in...

NG: The Valley.

SY: The Valley also.

NG: He was, they were in Los Angeles, I think living in Los Angeles, but after the war they settled in Sun Valley. His mother is Kibei, father, mother was Kibei and the father was Issei, so they, he had a whole different -- he's not, was not close to his family. I think language and also different kind of thinking. Father was a gardener, mother cleaned house. My mom cleaned house too, before the gas station.

SY: Right. So your father, he came to the gas station, so your father knew him.

NG: Yeah.

SY: First? Before you met him?

NG: I don't know, same time maybe. [Laughs]

<End Segment 27> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.