<Begin Segment 25>

MA: And I should ask you how you met your wife, and a little bit about her.

BU: Okay, yeah. Oh, yeah. Actually, Yas and I are distant related. But after coming out o of camp, while living at the hostel, this Frank Ogawa, who was married to Grace, maiden name Kitano, knew that we were kind of related. But he mentioned to me one day, he says, "Hey, Bob, I want you to meet my niece." And I was living in the hostel, she was at this time going to college, Yas Honda. And I said, "Oh, okay," but nothing ever came of that until January, or November, December 31, 1945, New Year's Eve. I had a car, I had a date, separate date, and I picked up two of my buddies and their dates, and one of the dates was Yas Honda. So that's when I actually met Yas, and we both knew of each other through Frank, her uncle Frank. So anyway, we went to New Year's Eve and I think, I'm not sure where it was, but it was a big Nisei dance in San Francisco somewhere, at the YMCA thing. Then after the dance, the six of us piled in the car and we out to Ocean Beach, Playland, spent few more hours there and then drove back. And those two couples were from, lived in Berkeley, so dropped them off and then finally ended up at home. And I didn't see Yas again until the following September when I went to Berkeley and ran into Yas. And I started hanging out with that group of kids, the guys and gals, and that's, then we started, we hit it together, and that was in '46. So I guess, what, September of '46, somewhere in there, then we started seeing each other. Then I broke up with my other friend and started dating Yas. And then we were kind of on and off, really, for, until I went in the Air Force. I guess her, her mother wasn't probably too happy with me, you know, because I wasn't doing anything, just fumbling away at Berkeley until I joined the Air Force. Then when I got my wings in August the 4th of 1950, then I was welcome into -- sort of welcome -- into the family. And then we got engaged that August and then got married in December of that year.

MA: Of 1950?

BU: '50, yeah. And then what had happened, I was stationed at Waco, Texas, at this time, and she made all the arrangements at Hamilton Air Force Base, so we got married at Hamilton. And the whole wedding party went there, and right outside Hamilton gate there was a motel then, so I, we took two hotel rooms there for the guys and gals to change and everything, because we're getting married, across the street is the Hamilton. And then we, after the reception, then we headed back to Texas. And at that time, the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge was non, wasn't built yet, so we had to take the ferry. Well, when we got on the ferry to start heading south, who's there but my father and the whole family's all on the same ferry. So he digs his camera out and we go up top deck ad he takes a bunch of pictures of us, her in her fur coat, and looks like we're on a cruise on our honeymoon.

So then they took us, well, then we got as far as Fresno the first night, second night Texas... oh, very interesting here. Third night we're heading for Texas and we stop in El Paso, her birthplace. What had happened was the reason she was born in Texas was her father had just completed his studies for his PhD, and he submitted his paperwork and all to University of Tokyo, but they were at Denver. And this is in January of 1928, and they left Denver, 1928, and headed south to El Paso to see one of his doctor friends that he knew, and told him to go to Texas because he couldn't pass the state board in California because of his English. Well, somehow he was able to get a Texas license, and he told him to go to Texas to El Paso. And this friend, doctor, was Furugochi. And I can't imagine December, January of 1928 going from Denver to El Paso, along the Rocky Mountains. Cold, roads had to be, oh, geez, I can't imagine. Anyway, they got to El Paso, the mother was seven months pregnant, and Yas was born two months premature, preemie then, I guess probably because of the rough roads and the conditions or whatever. And so she was born in Dr. Furugochi's office. Dr. Furugochi was childless, they didn't have any, didn't, couldn't, and Yas had an older brother, and this is the first girl born. And Dr. Furugochi wanted them to give Yas to them, to the Furugochis. They did, I guess they did that a lot in Japan, gave children away to sisters and brothers who were childless. Well, they wanted to do that with Yas, the Furugochis wanted her. Well, Dr. Honda, Yas's father, said no, because he came from a family of four boys and one girl, and they gave the girl away and didn't have any more, no more girls. So he, so it was bachi type of thing, so he wouldn't, he didn't do that.

But he hadn't, she hadn't seen Dr. Furugochi since she was born. So when we came through on our way to Waco, Texas, we stopped in to see Dr. Furugochi. And, of course, they were real happy to see us. And we didn't stay overnight there, but we just stayed a few hours there and got to meet him. And in the next few years, whenever we would go through El Paso, we always stopped and see Dr. Furugochi, Mrs. Furugochi.

MA: That's a great story.

BU: Yeah. That's... and Dr. Furugochi, being the only Japanese around, any GI that was stationed at Fort Bliss, Texas, during the Korean War or even World War II, he would hear about it and they would always invite the Japanese to his house and take care of 'em. One of my classmates, a guy named Chuck, the one I was telling you about in my chem. class, he met Dr. Furugochi 'cause he invited him to his house. Real nice people; real nice people.

<End Segment 25> - Copyright ©2008 Densho and the Topaz Museum. All Rights Reserved.