After I arrived in Japan the second time, I went to her father's home in Fujisawa, which was a high-end resort—it was then—high-end resort town south of Tokyo, about 60 miles I think. Anyway, I went to the house and Hamako was inside with her father and she said," There's a GI waiting out there at the gate, wants to talk with you." And the father, of course, knew I was an enemy and he said, "Send him away. We don't want anything to do with him." And Hamako said, "I can't do that, he came here 2 years and he wanted to marry me."

And so the father came to the door—he's a big, tall, fine-looking, serious-looking, scary, Japanese man and I...of course he stood above - the house with floor was up and the mon where you came in was blowing and I looked up at him and I thought, uh oh this is gonna be terrible. And he came with a very serious face and I said, "Sir, I have come back from California to marry to your daughter—for your permission to marry your daughter." Well, his expression changed right away and he said, "Come in" and he showed me to a nice room with a tokonoma and all kinds of Japanese stuff.

Anyway, I was happy as a lark; I could take off my shoes and leave them in the mon and walk on tatami and he was very nice to me.