<Begin Segment 13>

BU: And one of the things you asked me, "When did you notice you had intolerance in the American community?" You know, they still have Daughters of the American Revolution. They sponsored, sponsored in high school, high school time a debate. You supposed to go to this meeting and each would get a note as what subject matter you are supposed to write on or talk on. You know what, as soon as I got there, those characters went in a huddle, and they eliminated me right off the bat. They said, "No Japanese."

DG: No kidding? This is in high school?

BU: Huh?

DG: This is in high school?

BU: This is in high school. I tell you where they had the thing, they had it at the Cornish... not Cornish, Cornish School auditorium. That's where we were supposed to have it.

DG: So what did you think?

BU: Huh?

DG: What did you think when they did that?

BU: Well, I raised hell. [Laughs]

DG: Good.

BU: I'm usually not one to stay shut. Anyway, I walked out the door and I complained to the principal, but he says, "It's not my organization so I can't do anything. Sorry." Those are the days in which we also found out, say you went, they had a place called Trianon Ballroom. That's where they used to invite all those Kate Keiser and Tommy Dorsey and Goodman and rest to come there, and they make money because this is a dance hall. Well, those of us who were sophomore, junior in high school, all we wanted to do is go hear the guys play. So we get there and he says, "No Japs, no Japs. Get out of here."

DG: No kidding? Really?

BU: Yeah, they told us that. One day they did that to us at Paramount Theatre, too. But you see, we just want to just go up there in the balcony and listen to it. This happened more than once. So I said, that I tell Ruth and the rest of the people, "You don't know what it is to be intolerant because they didn't do that to you girls," maybe because the girls never got to go there and listen. But before the war, even before the war -- war was 1941 or '40 -- they still had the problem.

DG: Right, right.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.