<Begin Segment 13>

AI: Well, also, during high school you mentioned earlier how your father had said that you were going to be going to college and to plan for that. So were you already thinking about what you would, what direction you would go in in college?

RI: Well, actually, I wasn't in, at that time. I just knew I was going to college, so in high school you have to say what you're going to take and my sister and I, we were in, it was called a college course, in high school. You take subjects that are geared for college. And other people take a business, business course. So I was taking a lot of college, college-oriented courses which were lot of science and, different from taking typing, shorthand, oh, what else? Bookkeeping. I didn't take any bookkeeping. I did take typing. Shorthand I took, which helped a lot in taking notes in school. But...

DG: So, in the science classes, were there mostly boys, then?

RI: Well, I don't know that they were mostly boys. I suppose they were. Maybe I wasn't that aware of whether they were boys or not, but not necessarily. Well, I would say that maybe business courses should be mostly women, huh? Girls, because bookkeeping and shorthand and typing.

AI: And because there were fewer girls going on to college at that time.

RI: There what?

AI: Because, as you were saying, there were fewer girls planning to go to college at that time.

RI: Yeah, uh-huh. But I think when we were freshmen we had to establish what kind of course we were gonna take and I always knew that I was gonna take a college, college preparation course, I guess it was called. But, that meant we had to take science, chemistry, and did I take chemistry? What else did we take? I don't know, anyway, whatever, oh, languages. I think I took Latin.

DG: Do you remember any of your teachers specifically?

RI: Yeah, I remember Ms. Batty. She must've been a literature teacher. And I remember a Ms. Fletcher, who was a shorthand teacher, and oh, Ms. Walker was our roll room teacher. Well, when I was ready to graduate, I almost have a feeling that I must have had one "B," and that "B" must have been in foods, cooking class. And the cooking class was on the same floor as our roll room. Ms. Walker was a clothing teacher, sewing teacher, and this, I think her name was Ms. McAllister, was the foods teacher. And she was gonna give me a "B." And I'm pretty sure that Ms. Walker walked over to the, to the foods classroom and got her to change that to an "A" because then she didn't want my grades spoiled, because I was getting all "A's" until then. Well, nobody told me this but I don't know why I sensed it because I wasn't that good in cooking. We were learning how to make cream sauce and stuff like that and I wasn't good at it and I'm pretty sure I deserved a "B" but just so I won't, it won't spoil my record, I kind of think so. So, when I graduated, it was recorded that I got all "A's" but in my mind I think I deserved a "B" in there. [Laughs]

AI: Well, and when you graduated you were salutatorian? Is that right?

RI: Yeah, I was salutatorian because Momoe Mamiya, well, she's a Takakoshi. Well, she's related to her, Hoshide. You know, she's a Hoshide. Anyway, she was the valedictorian. She had more credits, probably, and the credits were added up. It wasn't a grade point average as much as total, total points, like maybe each "A" was four points. So she probably had more "A's." And she was taking a business course. See, I figured she was very smart and if her family could have afforded it she should have gone to college, but she couldn't because, I think she must have been the eldest child in her family. But, she had to go to work. So there were lot of smart people but if their families couldn't get them, get them to college financially, well, it's too bad. And a lot of boys didn't get to go to college, either.

DG: Were there a certain number of Japanese striving to the best grades, kind of thing, at all?

RI: Striving?

DG: Or, well, let's put it another way. Was it honorable to become valedictorian or salutatorian or...?

RI: I don't think that when I was going to high school I was striving to be the valedictorian or salutatorian. It just turned out that way. I don't think so, but as a rule, most of the Japanese students were studious. I mean, they weren't participating in lot of other extra activities so that maybe they could concentrate on their studies more. So they did well. I think the reputation was that Japanese students did well in school. So it wasn't striving to -- we weren't competing, I don't remember competing with anybody. It just happened like that.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2003 Densho. All Rights Reserved.