<Begin Segment 6>

SG: How old were you when the war came?

JO: It must have been around, must have been twenty-four somewhere because at twenty-six, I was, I got married and that was right in the middle of the war. After the war, when I got married and, so I got married in March 26th, '42, I believe '42, I guess. That's a guess.

SG: So --

JO: '44, yeah.

SG: You left Gresham and worked in California for how many years?

JO: I sort of stayed down there a year or two, not too long because I worked in Longview also, in Washington, yeah.

SG: So you finished high school here?

JO: No. I went to work after finishing Gresham grade school there.

SG: So you're pretty young?

JO: Yeah. I was young. So, from there, I worked, and like I said, worked with my brother and my mother. So, well, my dad was gone when I was thirteen.

SG: What was it like to have to leave to go to work someplace else at such a young age?

JO: Well, it didn't, my brother and I went together, so it didn't affect us too much. Then I come back, and then I worked in Longview, Washington. That was after because I remember buying a 1941 Chevrolet, brand new one, for only around a thousand dollars.

SG: And you were sixteen when you bought it?

JO: I must have been around sixteen or seventeen, yeah. Then I went out in the army, I guess twenty-two, I guess around twenty-two, twenty-two or twenty-four because of the, two year later, I got married when I was twenty-six.

SG: You decided you went to work, did you decide to ever come back to school or did you just keep working?

JO: I kept working, yeah. That's about the only thing I did, I guess, work.

SG: Did you ever want to go back to school?

JO: No. I took up judo and stuck judoout for long time after that, and I did kendo too. I should have, I guess.

SG: So you finished the eighth grade; is that right? Eighth grade, you finished up through eighth grade?

JO: Yeah. Then I kept working after that.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2003 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.