<Begin Segment 25>

KL: When did you graduate then?

MO: Graduated in '59, then I came up here to San Jose to open my practice, and I've been here since.

KL: Were you and Shirley married already?

MO: No.

KL: When did you marry?

MO: Let's see, I graduated in '59, we got married in '60? Yeah, 1960. But she was here in San Francisco at the time. She graduated her school at SC, then they came to San Francisco. That sort of influenced my migration up here.

KL: Did you ever go back into a Buddhist congregation?

MO: Here?

KL: Here in San Jose?

MO: San Jose, I did. Well, even when I was going to dental school, she belonged to Gardena church, her father was a minister there. So they used to have this youth group, YBA, so I joined that, and we used to go bowling and things like that. We had a good time.

KL: Where was your practice?

MO: Here in San Jose, it was downtown San Jose, right across the street from the hospital.

KL: So you opened that in 1960?

MO: '59, soon as I got out of school.

KL: Who were your clients?

MO: Referrals first, you know. I met a couple of dentists, I introduced myself to all the dentists around here, and had them refer me patients that they didn't need, overflow, so that's how I got started. Oh, and I went to San Francisco once a week to practice with this other dentist just to make some income, and I practiced there once a (week) and worked there, and then the rest of the time I spent here in San Jose.

KL: Was it a pretty mixed group of people as far as ethnicities who came to your office?

MO: Yeah, yeah.

KL: When did you and Shirley first talk about your World War II experiences?

MO: About our war experiences?

KL: Your World War II experiences in the camps.

MO: I don't know. I guess while we were dating, I guess, we talked about it a little bit. She'll ask me, "Where are you from?" and stuff like that.

<End Segment 25> - Copyright © 2013 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.