<Begin Segment 10>

JT: You got promoted from dishwasher to what? Where did you go after that?

KT: No. In camp, there was the student relocation group, encouraged people to, especially younger ones, to go on to college.

JT: Get an education. So where did you, did you have an opportunity go to somewhere?

KT: Well, I went to the University of Cincinnati.

JT: Okay, Ohio.

KT: Ohio, right.

JT: By yourself?

KT: By myself.

JT: Oh, boy, what an adventure.

KT: [Laughs] Well, you never go anyplace like that by yourself, and especially knowing that you're Japanese.

JT: How did that feel? What did you think?

KT: Well, I just kept my mouth shut.

JT: You lived in a dormitory or a house? Where did you stay?

KT: Well, first, going to Cincinnati, I went from Utah to Denver where the Kakos were. And I stayed just one night. And then from there, I went to St. Louis, then from St. Louis to Cincinnati.

JT: That's pretty far east.

KT: It seemed like it.

JT: And how did you, you were by yourself?

KT: Yeah.

JT: Did someone greet you, or how did you navigate those first few weeks?

KT: Nobody greeting, met me or anything like that. And when I got to Cincinnati, my father said, "Stay at the best hotel."

JT: Wow. Did he give you some, a little pocket change to pay for that?

KT: Oh, yeah, they'd pay for my tuition. I mean, I was very fortunate that way.

JT: You went to the University of Cincinnati? And what did you study?

KT: Well, it's just studies, general courses.

JT: Right, the prerequisites. Did you know what you wanted to concentrate on?

KT: No, not really. I guess I probably would have gone into some kind of business or something.

JT: Sure, like your dad. So what did you end up studying?

KT: That's really mostly general courses.

JT: Was there any field that you really liked? What did you end up getting your degree in? Or did you graduate from...

KT: No.

JT: Oh, then what did you do?

KT: At Cincinnati, we went to the dorm there, and then after about one month, they said they're going to convert the dorms into a ASTP program, that's a military...

JT: Oh, okay, for the war effort.

KT: No, it was sort of, you've got to move out of the dorms.

JT: Oh, so they promoted you again. Where did you go?

KT: Well, fortunately, we found a house that would rent to us.

JT: To Japanese?

KT: No.

JT: Oh, to students?

KT: We never said we were Japanese. [Laughs] But then they got to know us and liked us.

JT: When you say "us," there were others?

KT: My roommate was from was from Palo Alto or Mountain View.

JT: Okay, what was his name?

KT: Yosh Ozawa.

JT: And they didn't even think you were Japanese? You must have been very quiet, otonashi. So you didn't have trouble finding another apartment?

KT: So it turned out that there were some Hawaiian guys from Hawaii studying at USC medical school. And turned out that they got into this same house. So we had me and my roommate, and two more Hawaiians. So they probably just said that we're Hawaiians.

JT: And you were so otonashi, you weren't troublemakers, you were good boys. [Laughs]

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2021 Densho. All Rights Reserved.