<Begin Segment 12>

MA: Was there like a Japantown in Twin Cities?

IO: No, no.

MA: No Japantown?

IO: No, there weren't that many here. So even today, there aren't that many.

MA: Did a lot of people move away after the war?

IO: I'm not sure. Some did, I guess, but I wasn't, I never even gave it any thought. In fact, I wouldn't trade Minnesota for California, no way, right now even. 'Cause when Carmel and I, we got married, it was a small farming community in Wisconsin, about two or three hundred people town, I think, they were small dairy farmers.

MA: Is this her family, was dairy farmers?

IO: Yes, my wife, Carmel. And she, when I first met her, I asked her where she was from, and she said, "Exile, Wisconsin." I said, "Oh, she's pulling my leg, Exile, Wisconsin?" And there really is a town, Exile, Wisconsin. And we got married in Arkansas, Wisconsin, the church in Arkansas, Wisconsin. And then the reception was in Eau Galle, and then the dance was in Bay City, Wisconsin. And the only Asians who were there were my immediate family, relatives, that's it. The rest were all Caucasians.

MA: How did people feel about your marriage, being an interracial marriage?

IO: Nobody gave it too much thought.

[Interruption]

MA: What year did you marry Carmel?

IO: 1967 -- no, '67, yeah. Yeah, 1967, we've been married forty-one years.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright ©2009 Densho and the Twin Cities JACL. All Rights Reserved.