<Begin Segment 17>

MA: Right when you started working, that was in the '50s, you said.

SO: Uh-huh, yeah.

MA: Were there many other Niseis that were in those positions?

SO: In school? Yeah, in fact, that girl that hired me was a Japanese girl that was coming to our church, and she was a supervisor of the public assistance office, and of course I had to take a test, you know, and I had to pass the test. And so she, she was my supervisor, and then she, oh, and then we moved to another place on the north side, and she was, she was still my supervisor, and then I... then, let me see. One of the case workers wanted me to go to the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, and so I had to pass a test first to do that, and I got, I passed the test and then I got to go over there. So, but it was a secretarial job. I liked that there, of course, public assistance was okay, it was a secretary job and I used to take dictation, you know, take letters and things, but that was a bigger place, but I liked the vocational rehabilitation office.

MA: So the woman who hired you, then, you said was a Nisei lady?

SO: Yeah, uh-huh, she was Sachi Nobuku, and she was a good friend of mine, she was about two years younger than I was, and she passed away real early, she had cancer. But her husband is still around. He just turned ninety. [Laughs]

MA: What about your co-workers, your co-workers at the office, were they mostly Niseis or Caucasian?

SO: No, uh-uh, no, they were all Caucasians. And then at the public assistance office, there was one Japanese, a fellow that was a caseworker, and I think I was the only Japanese secretary then at the time.

MA: What was that like for you, being a woman, but also being a Japanese American?

SO: I didn't, it didn't seem to bother me at all. And the caseworkers were real nice, and so I didn't have any problems at all with that.

<End Segment 17> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.