<Begin Segment 28>

AL: So tell me about how you met and connected with Floyd. I know you were eating with his family...

RT: Oh. Well, he came back in the, his service, and he became a student at the University of Denver, and they started a degree in architecture and city planning at the university. And then I had known him... I graduated in 1948, and he started the university I think in 1947 or so. And he graduated in '51, but in the interim, we met, married, and he lived on the GI Bill and received a stipend, so it was possible to support me. So in 1951, his first job was to go down to Colorado Springs as a planning engineer for the city. And by them we had two children, third one in Colorado Springs, so four children all together.

AL: Did he talk at all about his experience in 442nd?

RT: He was a very quiet person, and he did not relate very much. I found out more by reading his papers. But he did say that he was inspired to go into architecture because at the end of the war, he was in Italy, and to spend the rest of his commitment to the army, he was in Florence, Italy, and they had classes and activities for the GIs who were there, and he was very much inspired by the architecture of, the Italian architecture in Florence and the art. And so I think that led to his making a decision when he came back and went to school on the GI Bill, that he would become an architect. But he went into city planning as well.

AL: Did he ever talk much about the loss of his brother?

RT: Well, I think it was a loss to everyone in his family, but no, he didn't have much to say. I mean, it was just, when you have people in the army, you know that they are exposed to danger, and if they die, that's okay. John was awarded posthumously the Distinguished Service Cross, and so he died a hero in some ways. And so he was proud of him, and as a result, he wanted to work... he designed a monument which exists in Denver at the Fairmount Cemetery. The Nisei Veterans group or the American Legion there started these annual Memorial Day services at the Fairmount Cemetery at that monument that he designed every year.

<End Segment 28> - Copyright © 2011 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.