<Begin Segment 5>

HH: That brings me to this point which I've neglected to ask you about, at what point did you become married?

ME: I was married in the, just before evacuation in the second of April 1942. We had been sort of engaged, and we decided that unless we got married, we would be going to different camps. So I think quite a few of us got married around that time so that we wouldn't be separated. In fact, in San Francisco, even among my friends, there were three or four marriages in the same church in successive Sundays.

HH: Is that right? If you were to become ill, say, in Minnesota or better yet, when you were a civilian employee in Japan, who would have taken care of you?

ME: You mean other than my wife?

HH: Yes. Because was your wife with you when you were a civilian?

ME: Yes.

HH: I see.

ME: My family was with me.

HH: Was it difficult to make friends during this period of time?

ME: Oh, I don't think so. The army life was, there was a lot of social events in army life, and my wartime years were spent mostly in the army. So I had no difficulty making friends, they were all among the military, of course.

HH: During the course of your life, what kind of organizations have you joined?

ME: Well, as a youngster, I was with the YMCA. I eventually joined the JACL just before the war. Other than that I can't think of any... when I went to school, I joined the students organizations, of course.

HH: Were you a member of any professional organizations?

ME: No, I was not.

HH: When you first started off working outside of the military service, did you encounter any racial prejudice, racial ethnic prejudice?

ME: I wouldn't say so. Because we were in the importing business where we dealt with people that were in the similar business. And so there was no racial discrimination in that particular business.

HH: I see. Okay, and as you look back, what might your aspirations have been at that time? What were you looking forward to doing with that business?

ME: Well, I wasn't in my own business, I was with an importing company. Our aim was to expand our business so that we would be able to eventually become a public company.

HH: Do you recall any obstacles that were standing in your way from achieving your goals?

ME: Well, I think we were in sort of a favorable position at that time because the acceptance for imported products was growing in the United States. I don't think we faced any real obstacles as far as expanding the company. The only thing that really stopped us was when the dollar value fell suddenly in 1985, I guess it was, it started to fall.

HH: Sounds like most of the time, after you left Japan as a civilian, you lived in New York City.

ME: Yes. Well, not in New York City, but in the vicinity. I lived in New York City for a while and then moved to New Jersey, which was sort of a bedroom community for New York.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 1994 JACL Philadelphia. All Rights Reserved.