<Begin Segment 44>

AI: So, let's see, by this time, when was this now that you actually traveled and... it was about 1948? Was it about February that you traveled to the United States?

MK: Yes, uh-huh, uh-huh.

AI: So, by then, you're twenty years old?

MK: Right, right.

AI: And you had been in San Francisco, you got your new suit, and then you traveled back to Seattle?

MK: Back to Seattle, uh-huh. I remember it well, that it was February '48 because Suwako had her eighth birthday on the ship. I think it was General Meig's ship.

AI: So what was this like for you to be coming back to the United States and arriving in the country?

MK: Well, it was exciting. I mean, I wasn't really scared because I was going to Seattle, and then the Moriguchi clan, I was gonna stay with Neesan, which is Suwako's mother, (she) is my cousin. And it was a sewing room that they had fixed up for me, because after all, they had seven kids, you know. So, the sewing room downstairs was where she (...) put a bed. And that was gonna be my room. And I really didn't have any real, real plans, but then I found right away, that if I'm gonna even think about going -- because I had that high school diploma from Japan, I thought I can go in and apply for university. But that was not to be. They said I had to have a high school diploma with my History I and History II. So, February, the spring semester, was just beginning so I quickly enrolled at the Broadway Edison, which was an adult education, and got my History I, and I took a couple other courses besides, I think it was English and typing, or whatever. And then I went to summer school and finished my History II. That qualified me for a high school diploma, a U.S. high school diploma.

And that was when I ran into, I went into the office. I didn't know what I was gonna do. All my peers in Seattle were secretaries. And they were happy and (...) everybody was, it seemed (to be) a secretary. But then I saw this flyer at the Broadway Edison High School, and there was this bulletin, flyer that came from St. Mary's, Rochester, Minnesota. And I asked the lady in the office, "Oh, this is interesting, do you have another one?" And she said, "Oh, take it, take it. No one, no one's interested in that. If you want it you can take it." So, on a lark I wrote back to them and asked them if I would qualify. And they told me, well, so long as I had my high school diploma. And then again, I had to -- well, going to the university was a problem because in the meantime I was searching for my education fund that my father said that was a possibility. But none of it was available because the insurance, at maturity, it would have gone to the alien property custodian because my father was alive. If my father was dead, well, then, I would have received about two thousand dollars. The equity from the house in Seattle, Cousin George had used it because he was in his down time. And so I knew where I was financially. And of course, I could have worked for the Uwajimaya, which I did while I was going to adult ed. I used to weigh the senbeis and the mushrooms. And they were again nice, accommodating my situation. But going to the nursing school, well, all the three years would have cost me two thousand, and it seems, seemed much more practical, I would've had room and board, so that's the way I leaned toward. And I met the qualifications, so that's where I was.

And then, to go there was another problem. I needed transportation money. So George said, "Oh, go on the Greyhound bus." So I took the Greyhound. He said, "Well, you can see the United States." So, like an obedient person, I took the Greyhound bus, and it took me about (...) four days, (...) and three nights. Slept on the bus and finally arrived in Rochester. And I talked to the bus driver, I didn't know, so I said, "Well, I'm headed for the St. Mary's Hospital." And that's not a usual stop. But the Greyhound man knew that I had a suitcase, so he just dropped me off right in front of the hospital. And so I just walked into the front of the hospital. Of course, the nursing school is behind the hospital. But all these little nice, nice gestures really encouraged me. And the nuns had experience with the cadet, cadet nurses from the camps. And that program was finished but at least I wasn't a total strange, strange-looking person.

AI: Oh, so the St. Mary's hospital was a teaching --

MK: Yes.

AI: -- hospital with a college, that they were part of the student relocation program that accepted Nisei students from the camps.

MK: Yes, they had the cadet program.

AI: I see, so --

MK: Right, and...

AI: -- so they had met and trained other Niseis before you.

MK: Yes, many of them. And so, one of the nuns said, asked me about it. And I thought, I thought that was interesting. And then, it made me feel good that I didn't have to win them or -- just be myself and they accepted me openly because all the Nisei so-, Nisei nurses proved to be such top-notch nurses. That, that was a comfort.

AI: So, in a way, your, your way there was smoothed because they were already familiar with having Nisei student --

MK: Right.

AI: -- student nurses.

MK: Right. The nuns were familiar. However, one of my first patients I had -- this is in the very beginning part, this is in the Midwest, of course -- and they looked up at me, and as a guess she guessed that I was Alaskan -- excuse me, Eskimo. She said, "Are you Eskimo?" And I thought, oh, this is time for education. And so I clearly came out and said Japanese American, even in those days. One even asked if I was French. But see, the Tojo image of a Japanese was so strong, they expected my eyes to be more slanted and maybe bucktoothed. I mean, I didn't have orthodonture but I certainly don't have those strong traits. And so, people didn't know what I was. The ones who didn't know who I was, they --

AI: So in the Midwest there were still people who thought that Japanese were the picture of the stereotype that they saw from the war.

MK: Right. So those are the few things I do remember. The nuns were okay. They accepted me, but there were patients who just couldn't figure me out. I looked definitely different. [Laughs] They didn't know what cadet nurses were, so -- and then the cadet program was all over and so it was too bad. I think there was a couple of them that had, had to take leave of absence so they were finishing up. And so I met them. And that was a time I heard that, oh, that was a nice thing that -- that was a way for them (...)... when you're in a cadet program they even get a stipend. So that was a good deal for them.

<End Segment 44> - Copyright © 2003 Densho. All Rights Reserved.