<Begin Segment 9>

DT: Okay, we'll just chat about your husband if we can, just kind of, maybe some highlights of his past. But how did you and your husband meet? Was it soon after -- well no, you were just ten. [Laughs] But when did you meet and how did you meet?

YK: Okay. My husband had fought in the -- he didn't fight in the Korean War -- but he volunteered for the army during the Korean War and he got to go to missile schools and whatnot. But, so, he came to UCLA at the same time I started. And you know, the Japanese kids all stuck together at UCLA at that time. We had a Japanese girls' sorority and I was part of that. And then we had a Nisei Bruin Club and he was also part of that. He was also part of this California Inter-Collegiate Nisei Organization which they actually abandoned at some point, thinking, "This is not necessary. We can get, we can become integrated with everyone." But we met through these activities, and I saw him and I decided, "Here's who I want to marry." [Laughs]

DT: Just like that?

YK: Just like that.

DT: Wow. And from what you describe, it sounds as if his family, was very... I don't know, is patriotic the right word? Or they were very supportive of trying to help the Japanese American community from inside?

YK: Yes. Their family was totally different from my family because my father-in-law had started a business being the middleman between Japanese farmers and the market. And my mother worked with him in that business, my mother-in-law worked with him, and they had a good life. They took piano lessons and went to private schools, took vacations, things my family was not able to do. He had a brother and the two of them, well, the four of them, were having a very good life. They owned their own home. My father-in-law had even bought a home for his parents, so they owned two homes. So they were in a different economic bracket than my family. They were very good friends with Fred Tayama, and Fred is the one who is very prominent in the JACL, and he was beat up very badly in Manzanar. But those were the kind of friends that they had.  And so they were determined to do their part, too. And that's, my father-in-law especially felt like the only way to make a better life for his children and grandchildren was for him to show his loyalty. So that's why he volunteered for the army, and when he did, he got up in his camp, Amache, and he saidm "All of us who can volunteer, should volunteer." And people just made noises and drowned him out. And my husband remembers just crying to think that -- he was about twelve then -- to think that his father is trying to say something and no one was even listening. So that was an emotional time for him.

DT: It was difficult.

YK: Yes, yes.

DT: Wow. Can we, Yoshiko, can we get the names of, let's see, your parents and then your husband and his parents? Because all of these photos have...

YK: Okay, yes. My mother and father are: Denjiro and Teruha Nakahiro. And his parents are Ruth and James Kanazawa.

DT: Kanazawa, okay. And he was Kay, is that correct?

YK: He is Kay. Did you want to take a picture of their family?

DT: I'll actually take photos, I mean, I can take photos?

YK: Okay.

DT: I'll do that.

YK: You can do that later.

DT: Is there anything else, Yoshiko, that you want to add? That maybe I didn't ask or that you want to...

YK: Yes. I would like to share what my mother-in-law had written. This is a postcard that she sent to her cousin in Visalia on April 12, 1942. And I typed it up, so I could read it easier. "So sorry I have not written more often. Things are so uncertain as to the date of our evacuation, as well as to what we are allowed to take. I have been doing nothing but packing and repacking. I do wish they would hurry and decide to move us someplace in the very near future. The sooner, the happier I will be. This uncertainty is getting us all down." And then I wanted to read you excerpts from a long letter she wrote to her cousin when she was  in Amache on January 8, 1943. "Mr. Kanazawa is in the army now. He left this camp on December 14 and is at Camp Savage in Minnesota. I should have written you sooner in regards to this matter but I was waiting until I could gather my thoughts calmly. Please do not get excited about me. I am fine and so are the boys. There is nothing to worry about. This is war, and I must take what comes in traditionally in the manner of our forefathers. After six months of training at Camp Savage, it's up to the army where to send Mr. Kanazawa. I am lonesome at times, but after all, I am a woman in my middle thirties and I am sure I can manage. Jay is fourteen and Kay will be twelve in April. They miss their father quite a bit but it seems to be making them very serious young men. They are a credit to their father. I am making nineteen dollars a month, top wages, as a worker in the documentation department on social welfare. I am chairman of the Granada Federated Women's Group. This is comprised of representative women from each of the twenty-nine blocks. Seventy-five percent of the women are Isseis and I speak in Japanese. I get along very fine with everyone. Of course, some men are jealous of having women leaders." That's why I call her the first liberated Japanese woman. She was strong.

DT: Wow, that's amazing. That's so special that you have those letters.

YK: Actually, this came to me rather recently. This Mr. Seki's son died recently, and his children were going through his things and they found these letters that my mother-in-law had written. And so they gave them to me.

DT: Sent them to you.

YK: Yeah, they sent them to me.

DT: Well, that's wonderful. Thank you, Yoshiko.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2019 Densho. All Rights Reserved.