Noriko Sawada was born in Gardena, California to Japanese parents who leased land to grow their own crops.

[2] In 1942, she and her family were incarcerated in a Japanese internment camp near Poston, Arizona due to Executive Order 9066.

[5] She met her first husband, Harry Bridges, at a fund-raiser for the Mine, Mill and Smelter workers and after falling in love, they decided to get married on Pearl Harbor Day in 1958.

[1] The law in Nevada was written in 1846, and "prohibited marriages between whites and Asians," which the couple tried to circumvent by protesting that Sawada, being born in the United States was not a foreigner.

"[6] The case was noticed by the national press and lawyers for Bridges and Sawada struck down the Nevada law in four days, allowing the couple to marry in Reno.