Interviews

1. Coming to California

2. Learning Japanese with the MIS

3. Meeting Hamako in Japan

4. Miscommunications

5. Writing Letters

6. Meeting Mr. Amano

7. Marriage and Returning to US

8. Reception of Hamako by family

Harry Schneider

(1916 - 2013) Member of the U.S. Military Intelligence Service

Writing Letters

Then about, that was about 6 months after I had arrived in Japan, she told me to go home, marry a nice American girl. Well, I felt kind of bad, and she got on the train and took off for her home in Fujisawa and so I didn't see her...I did go back home to Chicago but I couldn't...I wrote letters to her—cause I could use Kanji then and with Kanji and Romaji, English and all—I was able, we were able to correspond. But that...the letters all went to this Shizuko Naito in Radio Tokyo, who was my friend I tell you, and she passed my letters. I would write to Shizuko Naito, she would get it and inside the envelope was a letter to Hamako, my wife...well she wasn't my wife then.

So after 2 years of writing back and forth, and her father had no knowledge of this correspondence.

armed forces brides correspondence military retired military personnel United States Army veterans war brides wives World War II

Date: January 26, 2012

Location: California, US

Interviewer: John Esaki, Yoko Nishimura

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

Interviewee Bio

Harry Schneider, (b. 1916), was a member of the U.S. Military Intelligence Service stationed in Tokyo. Although Harry was not Japanese, he initially was recruited for the M.I.S. training program in San Francisco because of his administrative skills, but then was motivated to learn the Japanese language with the other Nisei soldiers. He married his wife, Hamako, in 1948 soon after the end of WWII. At the end of the War, special legislation was required for an Asian “war bride” to be admitted to the U.S. In 1950 Harry and Hamako married again at the Japanese Consulate in Tokyo so that they could be one of the first couples allowed to enter. Harry passed away at age 97 in June 2013. (June 2014)

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