Densho Digital Archive
Oregon Nikkei Endowment Collection
Title: Lilly Kobayashi Irinaga Interview
Narrator: Lilly Kobayashi Irinaga
Interviewer: Tom Ikeda
Location: Portland, Oregon
Date: April 27, 2013
Densho ID: denshovh-ililly-01-0019

<Begin Segment 19>

TI: Well, so your husband, Fred, was a little bit older than you, then.

LI: He was seven years older than (me).

TI: And how did the two of you meet?

LI: At a social after we came back from camp. I didn't know him from before, I knew his mother when she was at the market, because my mother used to bring me over there.

TI: So I'm curious how your parents felt about you dating an older man. Your parents, there was a twelve year...

LI: Twelve years. That's what I said to Mom, "You know, you can't say too much about it because your marriage was so many years apart."

TI: Oh, because she wasn't in full approval of you dating?

LI: (Yes). She was not that happy about my going with him. [Laughs]

TI: So tell me a little bit, you said he volunteered. So did he volunteer out of Minidoka?

LI: Right.

TI: And where did he serve? Which unit did he serve with?

LI: 442. So I went to that (replica of the gold medallion) program that they had.

TI: Congressional Gold Medal ceremony?

LI: Right.

TI: And did he volunteer early? So was he, like, a replacement 442, or do you know where he fought?

LI: He was never overseas, he was a stateside soldier. He was almost going to go from New York to somewhere, but he was called back to become a cadre or something with the group. And then he was a parachuter, and I don't know, but he was never able to go overseas. He said he wanted to, but he couldn't.

TI: So he stayed kind of back in the training camp helping to train the other men?

LI: Right, right. And then he was with the MIS, too.

TI: Oh, so he then trained in Minnesota, like Fort Snelling?

LI: He was out that way, yes. I didn't know too much about his army life, but he did write a little bit for me as to where he was at a certain time. And I don't know if they came back to camp, I'm not sure, but anyway, I met him after we came back (...) from the service.

TI: Okay, did he serve in Japan? Did he go to Japan?

LI: No, he didn't go anywhere overseas. He was stateside.

TI: Okay, so he's part of the 442nd and the MIS, but stayed stateside.

LI: Right.

TI: Okay, good. And then so after the war, the two of you met at a social.

LI: (Yes), they had socials at the Nichiren church, and I think that was the only one that had a great big social hall, 'cause our church didn't.

TI: And then so when were you married, what year?

LI: June 15 of '52. My mother said, "You're not getting married until you finish college," so I finished and got married right away.

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 2013 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.