“My dad spotted my mom working in the Block 42 mess hall. In spite of her delicate physique, she hefted and moved wooden flats of oranges with ease.”
Like many young Nisei (second-generation) adults, my parents, George Ichiro Yoshimoto and Michiko Masumoto, courted and married under the most inauspicious circumstances at Topaz, Utah.
My father’s family was from San Francisco, and my mother’s family ran Contra Costa Florist in El Cerrito before the War. If not for the incarceration of San Francisco Bay Area Japanese Americans in Topaz Relocation Center, they would probably never have met.
My dad spotted my mom working in the Block 42 mess hall. In spite of her delicate physique, she hefted and moved wooden flats of oranges with ease. That simple unselfconscious act caught his eye and made quite an impression.
Through the following months, he wooed her all the way from his barrack in Block 5 to the far reaches of Block 42. When he used to describe his daily treks, I could barely stop my eyes from rolling to the back of my head. But after studying the campsite layout in recent years, and realizing that his daily treks were undertaken through blinding dust storms and biting snow, I began to appreciate the depth of his ardor and commitment. My mother rewarded his persistence by accepting his proposal of marriage, and they got married in April of 1943.
As a newlywed couple, they secured a honeymoon day pass to Delta, where they proudly purchased two galvanized buckets to celebrate the beginning of their life together.
About the contributor: Carol Yoshimoto was born after the War in Berkeley, CA. Her grandfather, Hikojiro Mabuchi, was a master carpenter who helped design and build many of the East Bay’s pre-War nurseries. Her family operated Contra Costa Florist in El Cerrito, CA for many years. Carol has an MA in classical Japanese literature from UC Berkeley and a JD from Hastings College of the Law.
Copyright 2018, Carol Yoshimoto. All rights reserved.