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MA: So when your parents left camp and came to the Twin Cities, most of your family was in the Twin Cities after the war?

IO: Right, yeah. Well, the two sisters didn't. They were... let's see. One was -- oh, I guess both of 'em are married, got married somewhere along the line there, 'cause they didn't, they didn't live with us. My brothers and the one sister did, youngest sister.

MA: But no one went back to California after the war?

IO: No, no. And during that time, before they came, when I was working, I used to go out with the guys from work, you know, they were all Caucasians, and we used to, on Fridays, on payday, they used to go to a bar. And I never had any incidents, and then a few years later, of course, I, other than work, the entertainment was I went to the YMCA and the YWCA 'cause they used to have organized classes, and they used to have folk dancing, ballroom dancing, and square dancing. So I used to go, and all the people were Caucasian, and they were really nice. I didn't see any African Americans or any other Asians. And I enjoyed it. And as a result, I learned how to dance.

MA: Which became an interest of yours, right? You became quite a dancer?

IO: Yeah, so I used to go to (...) all these ballrooms and what they called old-time dancing versus modern ballroom are a little different. If you know what old-time is, like polkas and schottisches and waltzes, that's kind of, it's old-time. So I started doing that, and I went to all these different ballrooms, Prom Ballroom, the Bel Rey Ballroom, Majestic Ballroom, Medina Ballroom, American House, Shlief's Little City, and never had any incidents. I was surprised, you know. In fact, one time, I took a date and I went to what they called town of Glencoe, Minnesota, which is about thirty, forty miles west, a small farming community. And here's an Asian coming in with a Caucasian girl, the ballroom, they were all farmers there, and I thought, "Oh, there might be some incident." Not a thing. I couldn't believe it. And anyway, it was in 1957 when I was in the Prom Ballroom, that's where I met my wife Carmel for the first time. She was here with her older sister to get a prom dress for her high school graduation at the time. [Laughs] She was a senior in high school. And then I never, I never gave it too much thought, I dated her once, she came to the city after that. But actually, it was 1966 when I started really dating Carmel.

MA: Oh, I see. You met her in '57.

IO: Yeah, at the Prom Ballroom. I danced with her, you know. I asked her for a dance and got it. But that was another thing. I thought I'd get refused with a lot of people. Very seldom got -- well, once in a while I got refused, but overall, I mean, the Caucasian fellows got refused, too, you know, so it didn't bother me too much, as long as I... in fact, most of 'em really wanted to dance with me. And ended up, was it 1959, the Prom Ballroom usually has an annual polka contest, dance contest. In 1959, Marilyn Holberg and I used to dance a lot, and we won first place in the polka. [Laughs] Then a few years later, I used to dance with another girl, Charlene, and we used to -- the Aquatennial Summer Fest that they had in the Twin Cities, Minneapolis, they used to have dance contests. And she and I, we used to enter, we entered polkas, schottisches, waltzes, all of that. We ended up getting about third a couple of times, I guess. But no, no racial remarks or anything. That was one of the things that really surprised me. But overall, I suppose, during all that time, if I'd walk on the streets or something, once in a while, somebody might holler "Jap" or something like that, but I just ignored it. There wasn't very many, altogether, I'd say maybe half a dozen in ten, fifteen year period.

MA: Did the Niseis have their own dancing facility, their own ballroom?

IO: Well, during the war, the YWCA used to have dances for the soldiers that were at Camp Savage, and the Niseis used to come in for that. But I didn't attend those, so I don't know what, how many were there. But there were quite many, lot of Niseis at Camp Savage, then they moved over to Fort Snelling. But they originated in Camp Savage.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright ©2009 Densho and the Twin Cities JACL. All Rights Reserved.