<Begin Segment 18>

SY: So in the meantime you got married, during that time that you were...

AM: We got married in '53, so I went to work one more season, one or two more seasons after that.

SY: And how did you meet your wife?

AM: She left for Santa Monica early, January or February of '45 --

SY: From camp?

AM: Camp. Because one of her teachers had a daughter who had two young kids in Santa Monica, and they needed a schoolgirl, so she got that job.

SY: Did, you didn't know her during this period?

AM: No.

SY: So then she moved, so she, you knew her from Santa Monica prewar?

AM: No.

SY: No? But she lived in Santa Monica when you returned?

AM: No, some, some, I heard her telling somebody that some lady thought that the young people should socialize, and they had an evening of socializing or something and then we took it from there.

SY: So were you, were you very social when you got out of camp? Did you, did you know a lot of other Japanese kids?

AM: Well, the, I knew some of the people that were there before. I mean, they came back. But no, I was too busy going to school, joining the service and going sexing. I wasn't a very good socializer, I guess.

SY: But once you became a chick sexor, then your wife would travel with you?

AM: No.

SY: She stayed.

AM: She was a schoolteacher, and she went to Santa Monica City College and then transferred to UCLA, and then taught for about thirty, thirty-two years, thirty-two or thirty-three years. No...

SY: So she raised your, did you have children during that time?

AM: Two.

SY: So stayed home --

AM: A boy and a girl.

SY: And so she stayed home with the children too, while you were...

AM: For, yeah, she stayed home for a while.

SY: And you were still traveling, doing the chick sexing during that time?

AM: No, we didn't have any children then.

SY: So it was after.

AM: 'Cause I only went to work one or two years after we got married. She told me, I don't know when it was, to go back to school, "Why don't you go back to school?" And I was too macho. "What? Me have a wife support me?" [Laughs] I should have.

SY: So was she the reason you decided to retire from chick sexing?

AM: Maybe one of the reasons, but it was, it's kind of lonesome. There's some season before we got married, I'm headed toward Arizona way to go back East and I felt like turning around and coming back 'cause it's a long trip.

SY: Driving. [Sirens sound] You can hear this noise. What I found interesting was that there were Japanese Americans who worked as chick sexors? Was that, did you know that at the time, that there were...

AM: Yeah.

SY: So that was a common profession, or a fairly common profession?

AM: That, I didn't know. I was very, kind of innocent about that. All I know is I used my GI Bill to go to school, chick sexing school, and it wasn't enough, but we had some part time jobs.

SY: Do you know if, you don't know, then, if there were people your age who left camp to go to chick sexing school, or if that happened after camp?

AM: No. It happened after camp, but I didn't know anybody.

SY: You didn't know others. But it was a kind of a common profession for Japanese Americans. Did you know that at time? No. Did you find that out at some point?

AM: Maybe, because I didn't know where they came from. In fact, there was a branch school in L.A. and they had asked me to be an assistant instructor there, so I did that for a while. In a way, I've been a teacher on my own in different, different things depending on what I'm doing.

SY: So they somehow single you out to lead.

AM: I lived in L.A. and the founder of the school, the brother of a founder of the school, I don't remember if he lived in California or not, but yeah, he used to ask me to take over some hatcheries in California. And I was coming to L.A. to teach, but I didn't ask him, "Where are you from?" or, you know.

SY: So was the training difficult, to learn how to do this? Was that a...

AM: Well, you can't be clumsy because then you'd injure the chick and the chick could die. You had to be gentle and you had to have good eyesight. Your personality had to be, meet a certain requirement, I guess.

SY: You have to be quick, I would imagine. You have to have a certain quickness. So the training was kind of on the job -- I mean, not on the job, but was it practical training only, how to, how to...

AM: Yeah, it was, you'd do that morning and, I mean twice a day you go to class, and I don't remember how long school was, six months or less. I really don't remember.

SY: But you actually practiced on chickens, on chicks?

AM: Yes. And my class, my classmates that we boarded at the same place were mainly ex-GIs, vets.

SY: I see. So it was a good profession for vets. For Japanese American, was, were your, the guy that you boarded with, he was, he was JA?

<End Segment 18> - Copyright &copy; 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.