<Begin Segment 5>

KL: Did you meet your husband in Japan?

MN: Yes.

KL: How did you two meet?

MN: Well, he's -- and his mother's sister was married to a man in our town, so he, she introduced us. That's why.

KL: What is your husband's name?

MN: Name? Kiyoshi, K-I-Y-O-S-H-I. But we used to call him Kay.

KL: What was your first impression of him?

MN: I don't know. I was only eighteen, so I didn't think much about it. He was a quiet, nice man.

KL: How did you decide to marry?

MN: Well, kind of, my mother kind of pushed us, pushed me. My father said that -- I was the only girl left because two girls left, married already, so I was the only girl left -- my father wanted to keep me home. But Mother didn't like her children so much.

KL: So she thought it was a good idea to --

MN: Yeah, she said it was a good, she's the one pushing me.

KL: You said you called your husband Kay?

MN: Yeah, Kay.

KL: Where was Kay from? What was his background?

MN: His parents were a farmer in California, and the way that they started, they were a Papa Mama, called a Papa Mama store, little store. That's where he grew up. When he was real young on a farm, and then when he was about, I don't know, maybe eleven, twelve years old, his parents bought a little Papa Mama store, so he grew up there.

KL: That was in California?

MN: Yes.

KL: What part of California?

MN: It's southern part of Los Angeles.

KL: So how did he get to Japan?

MN: Pardon me?

KL: How did he get to Japan?

MN: How'd he get to? Well...

KL: Was he there for school too?

MN: He was nine years, he was, until nine years old, then they sent him to Japan to get a little education. So he went to high school in Japan, and I don't know how old he was when he came back. He stayed in Japan about six, seven years, I guess, and when he -- no, he didn't finish high school. But anyway, he came back.

KL: So you met in Japan, and then did you come back together?

MN: Yes. But I came to Seattle and he came to Los Angeles, because my sister used, my sister and her husband lived in Seattle. So I couldn't come to Los Angeles because they have to prove I was American citizen. My born record was in Seattle, so I went to Seattle and my husband came down to Los Angeles. Later, then later we got married.

KL: Okay.

MN: Then I came to Los Angeles.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2014 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.