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JT: And then what did you decide to do after you graduated? What year was that?

MT: From high school I graduated in 1949, and then I really didn't like English at all, decided to major in chemistry because my cousin did. It was, I graduated from Cal in chemistry.

JT: And you went to Cal?

MT: Yeah. And then worked at Dow Chemical for ten years.

JT: Oh my gosh. And in those days, how did you get from your house to Berkeley, to Cal?

MT: Well, my father had a car, which I got to borrow.

JT: Oh, he didn't drive you.

MT: No.

JT: Okay. Was he retired by then?

MT: No.

JT: He still kept the garage?

MT: Well, maybe he was. I don't know, I'm not too sure.

JT: What did he do...

MT: After the war he was a gardener.

JT: Okay. Who were his friends, do you know?

MT: My father's friends? Well, the Nakatas.

JT: Our cousins.

MT: Your cousin, used to come over almost every night to play go. The Teshimas, Mr. Teshima.

JT: Because they lived around the corner on Oak Street.

MT: I'm not sure if he came to play go, but he had some friends that... can't really remember who they were. But in the basement they played that go almost nightly.

JT: Do you know that that house is probably the heart of the old Japantown? Because it's right next to the Buddhist Church in that block, Pacific, the 2300 block is probably, I would say, the heart of old Japantown. So yeah, you were right there in the heart of it. Did you ever live in Berkeley, or did you commute?

MT: No. Oh yeah, I lived a short time at the dorm. Because my birth mother said that, you know, when you commute, you hardly have any friends. She thought it would be better if I...

JT: That's amazing that she encouraged that. Because while we couldn't afford to live in the dorm. We commuted. So then you got a job right away?

MT: After I graduated, yes, I was lucky. I graduated in '53. I think jobs were a lot more abundant, I guess.

JT: Yeah. But you had to commute to Pittsburg from Alameda.

MT: So there was this girl named Ruby Fong, I think was her last name, who worked at Dow and lived in Alameda. So we commuted. We were in a ride group up to Berkeley where this Chinese fellow, a boy, drove every day. He was a driver, and there were about six of us that rode in the car daily to Pittsburg.

JT: In a car, one car? Big station wagon.

MT: Yeah, he had a station wagon.

JT: And what exactly did you do at Dow Chemical?

MT: Well, Dow, I think at that time, was a major producer of chlorine. So I know my boss was working on some chlorine products. And I worked in the agricultural chemical department, and we synthesized new compounds.

JT: Oh my gosh, for fertilizer and things like that?

MT: Well, yeah.

JT: Did you know Kenji, I mean, George Kido? He was older than you.

MT: Yeah, I know who he is.

JT: He worked for Scott.

MT: Yeah.

JT: Shiz's, Spring's brother.

MT: Right.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2021 Densho. All Rights Reserved.