<Begin Segment 15>

LT: So after the war, what did you do, where did you go?

KY: I went back to Tacoma.

LT: Okay, actually, I'm going to stop there, because I think... let me ask this again. After the war, there was a parade in New York to honor the 100th/442nd Battalion. Did you participate?

KY: No. I was supposed to come home, but Switzerland gave us R&R. They put us in the best hotel and fed us the best food they had, and we went clean around Switzerland. I said to myself, I could have gone home, but I also wanted to see Switzerland. So I chose to stay so I could go to Switzerland. That's why I didn't come home 'til November. Then I've been back to Switzerland five times after that. [Laughs] Who never knows?

LT: And why would Switzerland want to do this?

KY: What?

LT: Why would Switzerland want to do this?

KY: Because during the war, we gave Switzerland food and coal, a lot of it. And the Swiss government didn't have any money to repay us, so they gave us R&R to repay us.

LT: So in November of 1945, you went home.

KY: Yeah. I went back home, and December, I met my wife at the USO in Seattle. Then she went to school, to Vogue's designing school in Chicago for three years and got a degree in sewing and tailoring. Then we were married in 1948.

LT: And where did you and your wife decide to live?

KY: Well, I graduated in 1950.

LT: And where did you graduate from?

KY: University of Western States. And I decided to go to Ontario because of the recreation, hunting, fishing. I loved to hunt and fish. You could see that. [Laughs] So my family asked me, "How come you're going to go way up to Ontario?" That's what I told them, and I wasn't sorry. I just enjoyed Ontario.

LT: You graduated from University of Western States, what were you studying? What was your aspiration?

KY: What?

LT: What were you studying at school? What was your professional plan?

KY: Our study was pre-med, all pre-med stuff. And my plan was to practice someplace after I got through, and, of course, I chose Ontario.

LT: And your plan was to become a chiropractor?

KY: Yeah, yeah.

LT: So after you married in 1948, you and Kaz moved to Ontario, and you began your practice.

KY: Yeah.

LT: You also raised a family.

KY: Yeah. We had two girls and two boys. Our youngest son came home from spring break to go skiing, he was involved in an auto accident, so he was killed in an auto accident in 1974.

LT: I'm sorry. And you practiced in Ontario for thirty-seven years.

KY: Yeah, thirty-seven years.

LT: While you did so, you also continued your schooling.

KY: What?

LT: You also continued your schooling?

KY: Oh, yes. I taught at University of Western States for twenty years after that.

LT: And you also went to school in Boise?

KY: Yes, I went for four years and got a degree in orthopedics.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2014 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.