<Begin Segment 2>

JS: So now, your mother came to --

MN: San Jose.

JS: -- San Jose, and where did they, where did she live in San Jose?

MN: She, she lived... well, I think she lived in Alviso --

JS: Okay.

MN: -- with the family, because my uncles, my two uncles, Shigeru and Isami, Isami, was born in Alviso, and so that's where, that's where they stayed, for I don't know how long.

JS: Did they eventually move to San Jose?

MN: Yes, uh-huh, eventually.

JS: To San Jose city? And was that --

MN: No, they moved to the farm, country. Foxworthy.

JS: Okay, okay. Now, when did your mother and father meet?

MN: They must have met around 1909, I believe, because they were married in 1910.

JS: Okay, and how did they meet? Do you...

MN: No, I don't know.

JS: Were they introduced, or were, they just saw each other someplace? [Laughs]

MN: I never found out.

JS: They didn't have a go-between or anything like that?

MN: No, no. It was a love match, love marriage.

JS: Oh, that's, was good. And how old, how old was your mom when she got married?

MN: Well, I think she was fifteen.

JS: Okay.

MN: And my father was about thirty, and so my grandmother was very dead set against it, so they eloped.

JS: Where did they elope to?

MN: To, to Salinas.

JS: To Salinas?

MN: Uh-huh.

JS: Oh, okay, so they, did they get married in Salinas, then?

MN: No, they got married in San Jose. Their marriage license is in the courthouse, I saw that.

JS: Oh, okay. Okay, and was your grandmother upset by, by this?

MN: Oh, yes, very upset, because she, 'cause my father was a, was a dorakubo.

JS: Now, what does that mean?

MN: He loves, he loves that wine, women, and song. [Laughs]

JS: And that was, is that what that word means?

MN: Yes, uh-huh, yes.

JS: Now, after they got married, they moved to...

MN: To Salinas.

JS: And is that where the boarding house came up?

MN: Yes, that's where the boarding house came. And then, then I think they had a, they got a, someone had, had this grocery store was for sale, so they, they bought the grocery store. And then when I was born, the grocery store was already in existence. It was, so it must have been about 1929, maybe longer than that, when, when they had the grocery store.

JS: So before the grocery store, they ran a boarding house, then?

MN: Yes, uh-huh.

JS: And that was their form of income up until the grocery store.

MN: Yes, uh-huh.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2004 Densho and The Japanese American Museum of San Jose. All Rights Reserved.