<Begin Segment 5>

KL: How did your parents meet each other?

KO: "Picture bride."

KL: Okay.

KO: My mom had a boyfriend, but you know, since they're both born here, United States, so it's good to get them married. My mom didn't like it too much, she had a boyfriend in Japan.

KL: Yeah, that'd be hard.

KO: Yeah, it's hard. He said, "Why I have to marry picture bride?" But they married.

KL: Did she ever think about trying to run away with her boyfriend?

KO: No. You know what happened? The boyfriend went to war, but he came home.

KL: Was she still there when he came home?

KO: Yeah. Once in a while they'd see each other, but she already married to my dad.

KL: Do you know when they married? Let's see, she was born in 1919, she would have been twenty in 1930.

KO: Yeah, twenty.

KL: And after they married, where did they live?

KO: Married and came back this way, United States, Boyle Heights.

KL: Did he go to Japan to get her?

KO: Yeah.

KL: So the marriage was kind of arranged, and then he went to Japan, they met and they married, and then they came back together? That's interesting that she had that boyfriend and wasn't really excited about the marriage, did she ever say anything more about what it was like when she first met your dad?

KO: I guess she didn't like too much. But I guess her parents pushed it, you know. They're both born here, she's born in Hawaii, he's born San Jose, so it's good for them.

KL: And was your dad... he was already living in Boyle Heights when they married?

KO: Uh-huh.

KL: Where did they... we saw some pictures of a house in Boyle Heights, too. Where did they live when they went up there, married?

KO: (In) Boyle Heights, he can speak Spanish. [Laughs] I'd say, "Where'd you learn that, Spanish? But I guess Boyle Heights, a lot of them, Hispanic, so he learned, I guess.

KL: How many languages did your mom, what languages did your mom speak?

KO: Nah, she don't speak English, huh?

KL: Mostly Japanese?

KO: Most likely Japanese.

KL: Did your dad speak English?

KO: Oh, yeah. He went back to, after the war, he was working in a naval base, interpreter.

KL: So he spoke Japanese, English, Spanish, did he speak any other languages?

KO: No, three. [Laughs]

KL: That's pretty good.

KO: I'm not kidding, anybody see Hispanic people, speak Spanish.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2015 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.