Discover Nikkei

https://www.discovernikkei.org/en/interviews/clips/423/

Marrying Bob against family’s wishes

My brother, my, not only the brother, sister, everybody was against marry to Bob, because Bob had four sister, and I'm not the strongest. Always I get sick. How could you look after going to the Kadoguchi family? How could you look after those girls? They're so young still, and the mother's not there. Mother was passed away long time ago, I think. So no, my brother said, No, he's going against. So the story was that end there.

But my brother have to move to camp, and my sister and we would have to move to Greenwood. So he, they want to take me Greenwood, so I talked to Bob. [Laughs] I have to go to Greenwood. Okay, then, Bob said, let my brother, send the brother first and see, and still he was going, you know, my brother said, You're not gonna marry to Bob. You'll, you're gonna die, you're gonna kill yourself. This is what my brother said. [Laughs]

So anyway, Greenwood, my sister, sister-in-law and the sisters going to Greenwood. I said, I'm not going, so my sister said, Why? Because I'm gonna marry to Bob. Well, they can't say anything afterwards. Okay, you stay back there. And afterwards, if a brother heard this, you gonna marry to Bob, he's gonna get mad. He's gonna disown you. [Laughs]

Well, and we had a special permit and sisters, they all went to... I don't know, maybe Hastings Park, they have to stay there, and went to Greenwood. I don't know exactly, but they went. So I by myself, and Bob had a special permit to go to Vancouver, and we married. And that day we walked to the City Hall, we heard on the radio Tokyo was bombed. It was April the 15th, I remember.


families marriages

Date: February 14, 2005

Location: Toronto, Canada

Interviewer: Peter Wakayama

Contributed by: Sedai, the Japanese Canadian Legacy Project, Japanese Canadian Cultural Center

Interviewee Bio

Nisei female. Born September 29, 1920, in Port Moody, British Columbia, Canada. Went with parents to Japan in 1930, and attended school there. Returned to Canada in 1940 and married before being removed to Hastings Park and then Tashme, in Canada's interior. After leaving Tashme, moved to Toronto, where husband worked for the consul-general's office. Adopted two children. Became involved in the Ikenobo Society, and went to Japan to study ikebana, the art of Japanese flower arranging. Involved along with husband in the establishment of the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre in Toronto in the 1950s. (February 15, 2005)

*The full interview is available at Denshō: The Japanese American Legacy Project.

Aiko Yoshinaga Herzig
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