Densho Digital Archive
Manzanar National Historic Site Collection
Title: Taeko Joanne Iritani Interview
Narrator: Taeko Joanne Iritani
Interviewer: Kirk Peterson
Location: Sacramento, California
Date: October 17, 2008
Densho ID: denshovh-itaeko-01-0015

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KP: So we skipped a very important point, and that is, when and how did you meet your husband?

TI: Oh, okay. Yeah, there are stories to tell, simple stories. Frank just died. I don't know if you're familiar with that, he just died in September 30th, and we'll have the memorial service on November 1st. But there was a group, I was coming up to the group that was the Christian Young People's conference, and they'd have times over at Lake Tahoe or over in Asilomar or various places like that where they have a, basically a retreat. And I used to attend those, and I'm sure we met at one of those, I don't know which one. [Laughs] And my husband was a student at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, PSR. He was first assigned way back in the early '50s, when he lived in, or when he was called to help at Centenary church in L.A. And I'm not sure exactly how the connection was, but he was attending Centenary, or Claremont, the school that used to be at USC, University of Southern California. And anyway, he helped at the Centenary church in L.A. when their pastor, young pastor, died of cancer, Sam Takagishi. And so he, I guess, decided to attend PSR, and he was the student pastor at San Jose first, San Jose Wesley church, and then he was assigned to Alameda Buena Vista church. And he was there and finished his program in '55 at PSR, and we were married in '56. And the reason that he came to Bakersfield -- see, I had been teaching in Oakland, and after I went to Japan with my mother I decided I'd go to Bakersfield because I didn't know my nieces and nephews, they were growing without me. And so I went back home and lived and worked... was I teaching? I must have been teaching at that time. And I was helping to transport the Issei to their Issei meetings, because, of course, they didn't drive. And so Emma Buckmaster and I and some other cars would be taking care of the Issei. And there were quite a few still remaining in the '50s. And then I think one of the ministers who had come down told Frank that I was down there. [Laughs] So he came down, and I'm sure he must have spoken to the Issei group, given a little Japanese sermon, and then we took up from there.

KP: Okay.

TI: And got married in July 7, 1956. And then he was assigned to the Oxnard church, and we were there two years, and then to the Portland church for two years. And then he decided not to be in the parish ministry, but to do some sort of other social work. And he wanted to go into the chaplaincy, but Susanna had been born in Oxnard, and we took the three-month-old child and went up to Portland, and Ken was born in Portland. And so he decided, well, maybe he'd better not pursue that too long. He attended the program, training program at Deuel Vocational Institute, which is a prison. And then he went into social work there in Stockton, where we were living. And then when we moved to Bakersfield, then he did social work for Kern County. So... and then our youngest, Bonita, Bonnie, was born in Bakersfield.

KP: Back one more...

TI: And then I went back to work after some years.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.