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AI: Well, so when you graduated high school and went on to college, that was 1951?

JY: '50.

AI: 1950.

JY: I graduated from college in 19-, or high school in 1950, and just before -- you know, during my senior year, of course, college started coming up. And this same Father Kitagawa that Tosh mentioned was kind of a, a family spiritual leader kind of person, and he's the one that really influenced my oldest brother into going to the priesthood. But he had wanted me to go to an Episcopal school, Kenyon College in Ohio, but I knew that Kenyon College was a, was not a coed-, educational school, that it was just for men, and so I decided I didn't really -- I didn't want to tell him that, but I decided I didn't want to go there.

So and then our minister at, at the church where my brother was a curator at that time was a close friend of the president of Lawrence College, which was up in Wisconsin, Appleton, Wisconsin, and it was a small liberal arts school, a private liberal arts school. And I got some brochures and stuff on it, and, and it seemed like kind of an interesting place to go, so I applied there. And then I had to apply to Kenyon because that's where they thought -- [laughs] -- I was -- that I should go. And fortunately, the acceptance from Lawrence came first, so I told my parents, "I better take this before" -- you know, "Who knows whether I'll get accepted to the other school." So I, I was able to go to Lawrence, Lawrence College, because the Kenyon thing didn't come in for another several weeks after that. So that's how I ended up goin' to, goin' to Lawrence, and I went there for two years. And Lawrence was a -- I mean, it was a absolutely lily-white school, too. I think there might have been one other Nisei who was in the graduate music conser-, music, conservatory of music program up there, but other than that it was a totally lily-white school. Not even any black kids at the time.

And I was there for two years, and it was kind of a, you know, it was kind of a -- it was pretty tough academically, but it was kind of a party school. There was a lot of that stuff goin' on all the time. And I, and I do recall there running into prejudice for, for really the first time that it hit me. The... it was obvious to me when I got there that this was a fraternity school, and although there were dorms, you know, the real "in" people lived in the fraternities. And so when pledging, or not pledging but when rush time came, I rushed with a, with several fraternities. And since I had been a swimmer in high school, the, the fraternity that had most of the swimmers in the college were interested in, in, in me becoming part of the group, and they were, you know, I thought they were nice as I was walkin' around and talking to different people, so I thought, "Well, I'll pledge with them." And then I found out that their national charter specifically -- and they didn't know that apparently when they were rushing me, that the national charter said -- I don't know what it said, but all I knew was that they did not allow Asians into their fraternity, or blacks or any minority group. And so I remember them coming to the dorm, you know, because by that time the communication was such that I thought that they were going to invite me to become a fraternity member, and I remember them coming in and, you know, just being very apologetic about it. They just found out, and they didn't -- there was nothing they could do about it kind of thing. And fortunately there was another fraternity that I, I kind of liked -- but they had most of the football players as I recall -- who, who did not have that exclusion clause, so then they jumped in and offered me the membership. I don't know what you call it, just becoming a brother in the fraternity kind of thing, so I joined that fraternity instead. And that's really the first time that, that I can think of where prejudice really hit me in the face in terms of something affecting my life. But, you know, that turned out fine.

It's just that it was a very expensive school and, and I thought after my -- you know, toward the end of sophomore year that this -- and then I found out that at University of Illinois you could take as many classes as you wanted for 64 bucks a semester, and at that time I think Lawrence's tuition was like $400 a semester kind of thing. And, and my parents, you know, were, were putting me through that school, and I thought, "That doesn't make sense to spend that kind of money," and, and I felt, it felt like I was havin' too much fun. You know, "I shouldn't be having fun like this at a college," so that's when I decided to transfer down to, down to the University of Cincin -- or University of Illinois, and left Lawrence after my sophomore year.

By that time I had kind, kind of established in -- you know, it was kind of hard because I had gotten involved with swimming, and I knew that I would do well. That was a Division III kind of school, you know, for small colleges, and I, I was very competitive there, but I knew when I went to Illinois there'd be no way that I would be able to, to do as well. But I just decided it was time to do somethin' else anyway, so I decided to move and went down to Illinois.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2002 Densho. All Rights Reserved.