

HistoryLink: Gunjiro Aoki weds Gladys Emery in Seattle on March 27, 1909, after leaving states that prohibit mixed race marriages.
On March 27, 1909, Gunjiro Aoki (b. 1883 ) weds Helen Gladys Emery (b. 1888 ) in Seattle after traveling from California and Oregon, which prohibit mixed-race marriages. The bride is accompanied by her father, Archdeacon of the Episcopal Diocese of California John Emery, and by her mother. The newlyweds plan to settle on a ranch near Seattle because of the hostility to their union in California. Aoki, a native of Japan, was a servant in the Emery home in Corte Madera, California. When Gladys Emery announced her love for Aoki, her parents opposed the marriage. The couple was refused a marriage license in California because state law prohibited marriage between Japanese and Caucasian persons...In July 1909, Mrs. Aoki gave birth to a daughter, the first of their five children...more...
Aoki's great neice wrote this account of the marriage. Here's an editorial from the Oregonian:
