<Begin Segment 10>

TI: So describe how you met your wife, or how did the two of you get together?

YM: Well, I had met her, as I mentioned, at Berkeley just once. I used to go out with her roommate. And then she was one of the more popular girls on the campus, and when we were in camp, I decided one day, well, maybe I'll ask her if she'll go out with me, and she said sure, she'll go out with me. After that, we went out quite often. Anyway, I had to leave her after a few months because I was accepted at Washington University in St. Louis.

TI: So before we go there, tell me a little bit about her family. Because I think you told me earlier her father was picked up?

YM: Yeah, her father was picked up on December the 7th. Alice had gone to Cal to study at the library in the morning, and when she came back, her father was gone. And she never saw him again after that, 'cause he died before she was ever able to see him again. But he was a newspaper man, he was a publisher and an editor of the Shinsekai, which is the New World Sun, daily Japanese newspaper that was distributed all around the northern part of California. And he had been a prominent citizen there. And he led a group of Japanese businessmen to the, I think it was the 2600th anniversary of the Japanese empire in Tokyo. They had a big celebration there and he led the group there and he was honored by, awarded with, the emperor, some kind of award and allowed to sign some register in the castle which was considered an honor. And then back in San Francisco, he would meet quite often with the consulate people from Japan. As a matter of fact, just before the attack on Pearl Harbor, I think he met with Ambassador Nomura, who then went to Washington, D.C. and then the war broke out while he was there. But anyway, he was then picked up as a "dangerous enemy alien" and put into, I think, some camp up in one of the northern states, I've forgotten where it was. Then after that, he was transferred down to another camp in Crystal City, New Mexico, I think it was. He wasn't released until 1946.

TI: Okay, so northern, maybe like in Missoula, Montana.

YM: Missoula, I think is where it was.

TI: And then New Mexico would be Santa Fe, New Mexico?

YM: Santa Fe, yeah, I think there's a letter that he's written to Alice in that book there from Santa Fe. And then his family, Alice's mother and sisters were able to join him in Santa Fe, I think it was.

TI: Oh, maybe Crystal City.

YM: Maybe it was Crystal City.

TI: Yeah, Crystal City, Texas, would be the family camp.

YM: Uh-huh. And then he was released in 1946, but then by then he was very ill, and he died immediately after he was released. And Alice was on the East Coast, so she wasn't able to go to his funeral.

TI: That must have been difficult on your wife, Alice, for her not to see her father.

YM: Yeah, yeah. She didn't have the money to make, to travel there anyway. So anyway, she was not able to see her dad after that fateful day.

TI: Now, when you left Tanforan to go to Washington University and you left Alice, was there some understanding between the two of you that you were, would get back together later on or anything like that?

YM: Yes, I think so.

TI: And was she in a similar way trying to get to another college also?

YM: Oh, yes. She had applied to another, to try to get to another place. She wasn't able to get out until the following year. I got out sometime in the fall of 1942, and she was able to get out in 1943. And she went to Temple University. First she went to University of... Kansas City University or something like that, and she was there for a few months while I was in St. Louis, so I was able to see her there. But then she discovered that they weren't offering the courses that she needed to graduate in dietetics. So she was able to get into Temple University in Philadelphia.

TI: Good, okay.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright ©2009 Densho and the Twin Cities JACL. All Rights Reserved.