Densho Digital Archive
Oregon Nikkei Endowment Collection
Title: Kaz Kinoshita Interview
Narrator: Kaz Kinoshita
Interviewer: Masako Hinatsu
Location: Gresham, Oregon
Date: March 20, 2003
Densho ID: denshovh-kkaz-01-0005

<Begin Segment 5>

MH: When did you meet your wife, Amy?

KK: What was that?

MH: When did you meet your wife, Amy?

KK: September.

MH: About 1940? How did you meet her?

KK: Through a friend.

MH: Through a friend, a good friend of yours?

KK: No, good friend of the family.

MH: Good friend of the family. So was he an Issei man who introduced you?

KK: An Issei.

MH: And that's what they used to call what, when people met and hope they would get together and get married, what do they call that?

KK: Baishakunin.

MH: Baishakunin. Where did Amy live? Where did she live?

KK: I live in Gresham.

MH: When you first met her, where did she live?

KK: She lived in Nahcotta, Washington.

MH: In Washington. Where in Washington?

KK: Maybe just ten miles north of Long Beach, Washington.

MH: Okay. So on the coast close to Oysterville.

KK: Yeah.

MH: Well, did you date her from Gresham to Oysterville? Did you date her?

KK: No. Well, more or less, I guess.

MH: Did you go visit her?

KK: Yeah.

MH: How did you visit her?

KK: I went out there with my car.

MH: You had a car? What kind of car did you have?

KK: Chrysler.

MH: A Chrysler. And when you got there, what did you do with her?

KK: We were on the peninsula, we rode the peninsula.

MH: You went up the peninsula, drove around, go see a movie?

KK: Yeah.

MH: Did you stay overnight? I mean, it's a long ways to go.

KK: Yeah. I stayed overnight.

MH: When you got married, where did you get married?

KK: In a Buddhist church.

MH: In the Buddhist church here --

KK: Portland.

MH: In Portland and who was the minister at that time?

KK: Reverend Derek.

MH: Did you have a traditional Japanese marriage or did you have an American wedding?

KK: No. It was Americanized. It was Americanized.

MH: Did you have a party afterwards?

KK: Yeah, we did.

MH: And where was the party at?

KK: Ishigikki.

MH: Okay.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2003 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.