<Begin Segment 5>

JK: How did you... you got married before the war, right? Shortly before World War II, you were married?

SI: Yes, yes, I was married.

JK: Well, how did you and your husband, how did you two meet?

SI: That was a go-between. My husband knew somebody... somebody my father knew in Ontario, Mr. Kido, Yuhei Kido, he was Fukuoka, and my father was Fukuoka, so he came to my house one night, and we're upstairs listening, you know. We can't be present, and be upstairs. And they said, "You have a daughter that's marrying age," that's me, and I can't be sitting around the house, and we don't date people, you know, and find your boyfriend. You have nothing to say. And Mr. Kido came to visit our house, and one night, and they're talking to my mother and father and said that, "We know this very fine man in Gresham, but more than that, we know you and we know your children and your daughter, she's marrying age, she should get married." So they had found my husband, and they had a friend in Seattle who worked in the immigration office, they had become close friends. So my husband consulted that man. They felt that if they get an important man in here, "she won't say no." [Laughs]

JK: You or your family? [Laughs]

SI: So anyway, they arranged that he would come to visit me, and later on, my mother said, "Even if he came to see you, if you didn't like him, we would never force you to marry him."

[Interruption]

SI: We were talking about my husband, how I met him?

JK: Yes, how you met him and when you first saw each other, and you liked him, and then what happened?

SI: Let's see. The first time he came, he only had a pickup. It was a fairly new pickup, but he didn't have a passenger car. And he came to see me, it was late in the afternoon because he had work to do at home. And we went for a ride, he said the people in Gresham were giving him advice, you know, if you're taking your girlfriend for a ride, you should take her here and there. You should take her to Council Crest, and there was another place that's really not the best place. But anyway, he went because his friends told him. So we went to a couple places, and then he didn't want to keep me out too late, my folks would worry. So we just were together in his pickup and riding around. And he spoke more Japanese, and I spoke English, but I knew enough Japanese I could understand, and I liked him. The very first time I liked him.

JK: Was it the same for him? Did he like you, too?

SI: I asked him, "What did you think about me?" He probably thought I was pretty stupid. And he said no, he really liked me.

JK: And what was his name?

SI: Well, his Japanese name was Masakado, which is strange, it's a long name. But let's see, I guess they all called Masakado.

JK: Did he have a nickname?

SI: Well, later on, they called him Buddy. It was just too much trouble to call him...

JK: Masakado.

SI: So after that he took on the name of Buddy, and a hakujin who was a business associate, said, "I'm going to call you Buddy. I can't bother with that other..." so everybody knew him as Buddy, rest of his life.

JK: When... did he take you on more dates?

SI: Yes, like every weekend he would come to see me, but it wasn't that many weekends because we got engaged soon after.

JK: How did he, did he ask you or did the go-betweens arrange it?

SI: They introduced us, and they came to our house twice, I think. And my husband and I decided early on we liked each other, so it wasn't long, drawn out, you know, it was a couple of months. Then they set up a wedding date, and you have to think about the farmers, too. With me, it made no difference. And then we set a date, and then the man from Seattle said, "Well, we need to buy her an engagement ring." So he bought the ring for my husband, bought it up in Seattle, and then my husband, of course, paid for it. And it had a diamond in it, and I was so proud of that ring. [Laughs]

JK: Do you still have it?

SI: No. After a while my finger got so big, I couldn't wear it, and I had to have it cut off.

JK: And how did you get ready, what kind of wedding did you have?

SI: We had to have an engagement party first. And my mother didn't know all this process, you know, she had to be told. So anyway... I forgot. Anyway, he comes back and again and brings me this ring that had a diamond in it. I was so proud of that ring.

JK: And then you had an engagement party.

SI: Yeah, we went to, yes, my father said we had to have an engagement party, and there were no Japanese restaurants in Independence. So we went to Salem, and my father knew a Mr. Tanaka who owned a Japanese restaurant, sukiyaki place, in Salem, so we decided to have it there. It wasn't too far away. So we had a nice engagement party, and my husband and his parents came.

JK: Did you meet his parents before the engagement party?

SI: Yes. Ojiisan, he came with his son one of those Sundays when he came.

JK: So they knew about you?

SI: I don't know why the grandma didn't come, but anyway, maybe he insisted, or maybe my husband said his dad would come with him. And then my dad loved to drink sake, and the old man, my future father-in-law, he loved to drink, too. So he brought his father with him and they sat down together and had something to drink and were talking, and they thought, "Well, this is going to work out real good."

JK: Isn't that nice, both fathers agreed?

SI: Yeah.

JK: And then how did, did your mom make your wedding dress, I mean, did you have a wedding dress?

SI: I did. We went to a store in Salem, and I know there was Miller's department store, and I can't recall. I know later on my mother used to buy fabric from them, but we bought a ready-made satin dress. It was a heavy ivory satin dress. And I was pretty small, my waist was real small, not like now. [Laughs] And it had long, they call it leg of mutton sleeves, they're big up here and then they're snug down here, and had little buttons all the way down here. It was a very good looking dress, and something that my parents really couldn't afford, but they wanted the best for me.

JK: Because you were the first one getting married.

SI: Yeah.

JK: And where did the ceremony take place?

SI: At what is the Oregon Buddhist Church, which is in Portland, and we were in Independence, so we had to go there. That's where we had, and we had the reception at Ichiriki, have you heard of it?

JK: I haven't.

SI: Who was the man that owned that? They had one daughter, her name was Chiyo, and they had a reputation for serving good food. So anyway, we had the reception. I wonder if they not only prepare food, but maybe they had a restaurant.

JK: Do you think the reception, was the reception at church or at the restaurant?

SI: At the restaurant, definitely.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2014 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.