Interviews

1. Four sisters had international marriages (Japanese)

2. Disrespectful Child (Japanese)

3. Discrimination faced in San Francisco (Japanese)

4. Missing Home (Japanese)

5. The Kids and Japanese Language (Japanese)

6. Regret (Japanese)

7. How she met her husband (Japanese)

8. Public views on marriage with non-Caucasian (Japanese)

Calloway,Terumi Hisamatsu

(b. 1937) A war bride from Yokohama

How she met her husband (Japanese)

(Japanese) My husband would wait for me at the train station from time to time. I didn’t like it. Going with an American man, especially with my husband being black, it stood out. I didn’t know what to do. Then he offered to take me home. Rather than being seen while talking to him right there and feeling embarrassed, I wanted to just get out of there, so I let him take me home. Then I grew to like him..

It doesn’t feel bad to be told that he liked me and loved me. I still didn’t think I would marry him or date him. Then he told my parents he wanted to marry me. My parents said no as I was still too young and didn’t even know how to cook. Eventually, I would go out with him on dates and… married him.

brides international marriages marriages war brides wives

Date: September 17, 2014

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Izumi Tanaka

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

Interviewee Bio

Terumi Hisamatsu Calloway was born in 1937 in Yokohama as the 5th of 10 children and grew up in the suburb of Tokyo during the war. She met her husband, Edward E. Calloway, who was a civilian engineer working at American military base in Tokyo and married him. In 1960, after having 2 children, Terumi moved to the U.S. with her family and settled in the Bay Area and had two more children. Later they moved to the Lompoc area where all of her 4 children - 2 girls and 2 boys - grew up. In 1977, they moved to Inglewood where she resides now. Terumi was widowed in 2009, and she currently works as a caregiver. (April 2016)