<Begin Segment 24>

AL: This is tape four of an oral history interview with Colonel Arthur Nishimoto. Today is August 22, 2012, the interviewer is Alisa Lynch, videographer Kristen Luetkemeier. So we were talking about the Congressional Gold Medal. I wanted to back up a little bit and talk about during the war. I know that you're being recognized now, seventy years later, but when you came home from the war, where did you come to and what was the reception like?

AN: Well, the people in Hawaii did not know when we'll be arriving there, but there were shiploads that came in, and the people were just come to the pier to see if their sons or daughters were, happened to be there. And so my engaged wife, every time a boat comes in, she and her mother would go to the pier and watch. And it just happened that one of those, I was on. And that's the way it was. They didn't make any announcement who was coming home or anything like that. So that's the way I returned, I was just happy that she was there waiting for me. So she said, "I've been doing this every boat load that comes through."

AL: Good thing she had the ring, or she might have met some other guy, huh?

AN: Yeah. [Laughs]

AL: What was her... did you see her face the first time she recognized you?

AN: Yeah, she, of course, it was a good meeting after this long period. But in actuality, we weren't away that long, couple of years. Not that long when you really come down to it. All counted, that was only about a year. But in the short year, we accomplished so much, that's what made us outstanding, I guess, we accomplished so much in such a short period of time. That's the amazing part of the whole thing, if you look at the whole picture.

AL: Well, you know, you say a year is short, but I think for me, I can't imagine making through a single day of that. I've read some of Ernie Pyle's writings, you know, his warfront writings, and last year I was reading them kind of day by day, I'd read the day's worth of Ernie Pyle, and it was gut-wrenching and I wasn't even there. I was reading it from the comfort of my home, and it was just, I can't imagine. That's why I keep saying I can't imagine, I can't imagine. So when did you first see your parents?

AN: My parents? Well, they took me home to my parents' place, and that's the first time I saw them, at home.

AL: Were they surprised to see you?

AN: Yeah, yeah, they didn't know I came home. So it was my wife and her mother, she's the only child anyway, so she and her mother came over just to see who was there, just happened that I was on the ship. And they took me home directly to my home. That's the way I came home.

AL: And your brother and sister were still in school?

AN: Yeah.

AL: When did you get married?

AN: I came home in December, and I got married in January. I didn't waste no time. [Laughs]

AL: Where did you marry?

AN: In Honolulu.

AL: Is there a temple there? I mean, where is it in Honolulu.

AN: Over in the, I got married in the Tabernacle, the Hawaiian Tabernacle.

AL: Is it still there?

AN: Yeah.

AL: What is it called? Does it have a name or is it just called the...

AN: Yeah, it's called a Tabernacle, it's on Pau'a. It's a regular church meeting house. Then later on, we went to the temple to be married, I mean, what we called sealed together.

AL: In Laie?

AN: Yeah.

AL: Did you go to Hawaii for your honeymoon? That's what everybody wants to do, or did you stay in Hawaii?

AN: No, I went to Maui.

AL: Oh, okay.

AN: Yeah, I went to Maui, not to the Big Island. I went to Maui for about a week or so with our friends over there. That's where I went.

<End Segment 24> - Copyright © 2012 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.