<Begin Segment 36>

GY: During my stay in the Army, I was married in 1945 on VE Day to Helen Furuyama at that time, in Chicago. And so after my discharge, I hurried back to Chicago to join my wife, and had to make some decisions. What am I going to do? Oh, my parents had on their own returned to LA and were staying at a hostel, including my two sisters. I think my other sister was -- excuse me -- was in Detroit. But my younger sister was with them. And so again, the matter of what am I going to do. One of the things about being in the Army was that you had benefits. Receiving a few dollars each week, and money to go to school. That was really neat, but I had no idea what I wanted to do with this opportunity. We went back to California because Chicago was no, not a place to... not a very pleasant place.

And Helen was, before the war, worked in the city of Berkeley near the university as a schoolgirl, a domestic, and she would provide baby-sitting chores and help in the kitchen, but she went to school at the time for a few hours a day. And she was taking some classes at the, at a business school. And, of course, in those days, Nisei women were advised to take just typing and shorthand because opportunities for jobs were just about, very much limited to something like this. And it was not a bad idea because when she left camp to go to Chicago, she did work, find job rather easily as an office worker. Getting back to the postwar years and returning to California, her former employee, when she used to go to school in Berkeley was the same family that invited her back. "If you'd like to stay with us for a while until you find housing, you're welcome to stay there." So it was really nice of them, a hakujin family, white family. So we stayed with them for a few days and then found a job right next door as domestics again, with a very nice family again. So that was a good setup. And we'd go to school, do some housework, and she stayed, and she stayed there as a domestic again. Washed dishes, helped with the cooking, but she also started to work for the International (House) near the Berkeley campus for a while.

AI: Excuse me. So this would have been about 1946 --

GY: Yes, uh-huh.

AI: -- that you and Helen left Chicago, moved to Berkeley, and luckily were able to -- with this assistance of the family -- temporarily stay and then find the domestic work.

GY: Yes. Yeah, yeah, I went to school, and she continued to work. And so we had a few dollars coming in; saved every bit of it. We didn't have a car, no expenses. None of that. And I took accounting, too. I went to the same business school she went to because she was familiar. Again, do -- reason why I went to this business school was that in Chicago, before we left for Berkeley, looked through the want ads, help wanted and all these things, and it seemed like they wanted accountants more than any other kind of job. So I thought, Well, there's, must be some kind of need. So I took accounting at Armstrong College in Berkeley, business school and graduated with some kind of a degree. Looked for a job and couldn't find anything. And took some civil services jobs -- examinations. Applied at accounting offices, and I think there was a recession at the time because, about the time of the Korean War. I could not find a job, and I was not hired for one reason or another. I worked part time doing some accounting work for a person who was very -- kind enough to lend me some office space, and helped him, get some experience in accounting. But it didn't work for me. I just could not sit around, trying to debit the -- what's the word I want? To balance the debits with the credits kind of thing. [Laughs] Very much disappointed with that. And I thought I'd better change, get out of that business.

<End Segment 36> - Copyright © 2002 Densho. All Rights Reserved.