<Begin Segment 9>

AI: So that would have been in the fall of 1941, you started taking some classes at Garfield. And then was, was it about the same time that you had applied for a job?

MN: Yeah, applied for the Seattle School District job as a clerk, and that was a part-time job, and I got it, and it was at Stevens grade school. And it was only four hours a day. The reason we were able to get into the school was because all the white clerks left the school district because they got better-paying jobs that we couldn't get into, like Boeing and all the war movements that they were able to get into.

AI: So even though the United States had not officially entered World War II yet, there were still a buildup of industry in the area, like at Boeing. It's interesting to hear about that, because I think before that time, would there have been any chance that you would have been hired for something like a clerk position?

MN: No. There is, one of the clerks had her teacher's certificate, and she would never find a job as a teacher, so she was working as a clerk.

AI: So you started as a part-time clerk at the Stevens grade school in the fall of '41, and you must have been one of the first non-white clerks there, is that right?

MN: Probably. But the principal was real nice, and very understanding. And since I only worked four hours a day, didn't have that much contact with the other teachers in the building.

AI: So generally your, your early experience there was all right, and did you face any kind of prejudice or discrimination?

MN: Not that I know of.

AI: Not at that point.

MN: I was so dumb, I wouldn't have known if they were prejudiced against me. [Laughs]

AI: Well, was it something that you were worried about when you had applied for the job?

MN: Not that I recall.

AI: So then --

MN: I was just thrilled to get a job. And even if it paid only thirty cents an hour, that's four hours every day, that amounts to $1.20 a day, and for one week, $1.20 will be... what is it? Five times... six, six dollars a month -- a week. But I was happy.

AI: And at that time, it was a regular job, steady income that you had?

MN: Uh-huh.

AI: Well, tell me, after you had started working there at Stevens, but before December, before December 7th, were you very aware of the war in Europe, or the war in the Pacific, Japan's military?

MN: No, I was not.

AI: And, because at about that time, there were, there were some headlines about the war, and also there were some headlines about worsening relations with Japan. I was wondering if you or anyone in your family had followed the news, or discussed that.

MN: Followed the news, but then there was no discussion or anything that I recall about it. There probably was, but I can't recall.

AI: And also in this period, this short period of the end of 1941 but before December 7th, anything else that comes to mind about that period when you were going to school part-time and working part-time?

MN: No, I can't recall anything that happened.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.