<Begin Segment 14>

TI: So now, let's go back to Ellensburg, and after three years, you finished this, the training, your degree. Then what happened?

MH: Well, you get a certificate, and anybody in those days that got the certificate could teach in any of the schools in the state. I applied all over, even if Dr. Hinch told me I wouldn't get a job. Well, it's proven right. I couldn't. Nobody wanted me.

TI: And this was about, what, 1936-'37?

MH: 1936, '37. '37. So...

TI: And so you applied to school districts in Seattle...

MH: Seattle, way out in Kittitas County, way out in the sticks.

TI: All parts of the state.

MH: All parts of the state. Nobody wanted me. So then I applied at a WPA. In those days they had the WPA nursery, and they said, "Well, we only hire people on welfare." I said, "Oh good, put me on welfare, because I, I don't have any money, I can't earn anything. Put me on welfare and let me teach." "Oh, we can't, we really can't do that." I was even turned down at a WPA nursery. So I was very discouraged, and my father, seeing me so discouraged, said, "Well, May, how about going to Japan, teaching there?" Says, "Papa will give you money to go to Japan, and you try Japan." So I jumped at it, and I said, "Okay." I'd never been to Japan, but I said -- but fortunately, I had an older sister that lived there. So I said, "Okay, I'll go to Japan." So I did go. This was in 1937.

TI: And when he said, "Go to Japan to teach," would it be, what would you teach?

MH: Well, that's it. They had American schools where American servicemen's children went, but those were filled. If I had wanted to teach in a Japanese, teach English in a Japanese school, I had to be able to speak Japanese, and I couldn't at that time speak sufficient Japanese to teach. So even in Japan, I couldn't get a teaching job. So I, what I did was I took students, college students, and I tutored them. I had quite a number of students who came to me, and just yesterday I sent off a package to one of my students who has kept in touch with me. And here, I, the war came after that time, and I changed my name, how did she ever find me in a little town of Tujunga in California? She searched JACL lists, and fortunately she, somebody in the JACL organization knew about me, and directed her. But that, that was amazing.

TI: Well, let's go back again to that decision to go to Japan. [Interruption] But the, the decision, so how did you feel? I mean, were you, did that make sense to you? It seems like a big step for you to take.

MH: To go to Japan?

TI: To go to Japan.

MH: Oh, no, that was a new adventure for me.

TI: Okay, so you thought of it as an adventure.

MH: I do.

TI: And you had an older sister there, so it didn't seem like it was too big of a stretch.

MH: No. And money was the issue, but...

TI: Had you ever been to Japan before?

MH: Uh-uh.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.