<Begin Segment 26>

TI: So I want to now go back, you were talking about, at one point, the American Legion. And so you're, I want to go back in time now, back after the war, probably early '50s, that era. Well, I guess, tell me first how you met your wife. I think that's all part of that.

AM: Probably, we started up a baseball team, and 'course, we used to play teams from the churches, or mostly just among Nihonjin. And all thse little towns around here like Brighton and, you just talked to the Konishis and all that, Greeley used to have a baseball team, Platteville, Longmont, Brighton, they all used to have their own baseball teams, and most of 'em all used to be either teenagers or on up. And her brother used to play it with us, and she'd always show up. So I asked her for a date one time, and we just started seeing each other. And then she had, she didn't have any parents here, her mother had passed away when she was just an infant. Her father had divorced the mother before she passed away, and during the war, he went back to Nihon. So she was just here with her brother, but then she was pretty much taken care of, living with her aunt and her grandparents and working with her, paying the rent and stuff like that. And so one time we just decided we'll get married and just, she said the simplest way would probably just go and get married, so we done that. Of course, we disappointed everybody. They didn't like what we did, but up to this point, my wife never regretted it, she, running off and getting married, she thought that was kind of a good way to get out of whatever she was in at that time.

TI: And so where, when you say get married, so you went to another city to get married?

AM: Yeah, we just went to Golden, and we applied for a license, of course, and in those days, you still had to take your blood test and all that. Went up to Golden and got married, and went to a mountain town, mountain town and spent a few days there and came home. And we started housekeeping, we rented a place from a Japanese family. And I still had my job, she still had hers, and we got some cheap silverware and plates and stuff and started a house. Went out and bought, bought an icebox, refrigerator, that thing still works. [Laughs]

TI: And what was it about Nancy that attracted you to her?

AM: I, I think that, besides, she's really a pretty woman, she just had a calmness around her. And she wasn't the type to be giddy-giddy about anything, and real quiet, demure. Had a sense of humor and all that, yeah.

TI: And so the two of you started a family. How many children did you have, and why don't you tell me who your children are?

AM: Okay, the oldest is Carol, I think she was born in, we got married in 1950. I think Carol was born in '51 or '52. Carol's my oldest daughter, she has, she's a teacher at Colorado University. I have a son born in '53, and he is in computer work, he was the chief programmer and analyst for a microfiche company. And then my youngest is Joyce -- of course, my son has three daughters, and one of the daughters has two sons. Well, that makes me a great-great grandpappy. My youngest one, she's married, she lives in Lakewood, she's an environmental scientist, and she doesn't have any children, and she's, wants to be a yoga instructor. She had me doing yoga yesterday.

TI: [Laughs] That's great.

AM: So they're all doing real well.

<End Segment 26> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.