<Begin Segment 44>

TI: Okay, so let's, let's pick it back up. We're, so let's go back to Gonzaga, because when you were at Gonzaga, this is after the war, you're studying, getting your chemistry degree at Gonzaga. You, during this time, met your, your future wife at that point.

FS: Yes.

TI: So why don't you talk about that?

FS: Well, you know, we were, there were several other, at that point, Japanese American kids at Gonzaga, and we kind of fell together, Bill Nishimura was that, kind of the leader of the pack, and so we would, we would date as a group, and so they introduced me to Lily. I had, of course, we knew, my family knew her family because the Nakais were, were an old Spokane family. And we dated for quite a while. Boy, I don't know what the timeframe was, but we were dating for a time through while I was an undergraduate, and then I went off to, to the UW to do graduate work.

TI: Well, before we go there, so what was it about Lily that attracted you to her?

FS: She's a really pretty young lady, very, very vivacious, attractive young lady. Very quiet in those days. And so we, we seemed to hit it off well.

TI: And if you'd ask her at the same time what attracted her to you, what would she have said?

FS: Well, she'd probably say I had a full head of hair. [Laughs] I don't know. I didn't have this line of BS I have now, okay? [Laughs] I, you'd have to ask her, because... I must have bamboozled her a lot. No, she was a lovely young lady.

TI: Now, did she ever say that she noticed you? Because you kind of probably knew of each other before the war.

FS: Oh, yeah. The families knew each other.

TI: Right, so did she ever mention that she had always had her eye on you or anything like that?

FS: I doubt that. I'm sure she had of lots of other beaux, she's a very attractive young lady.

TI: Well, did you notice her before the war? Did you kind of...

FS: No, I don't think I was aware of the family, I mean, aware of her. Because we, again, as I said earlier, we lived out, out of town. My mother knew her mother and that kind of business, but no, I don't think so.

TI: So after you graduated from Gonzaga, was the thinking that you would go on to graduate school?

FS: Yeah, I, yeah, I planned to go to graduate school.

TI: Okay, so let's pick it up there.

FS: So I went to UW, and that was kind of a disaster, you know. [Laughs] I really wasn't prepared to how intense graduate school was. It was really intense. It was just, just about all I could handle, and so at the end of the year I quit. I just, it was time to go to work. And I, I looked around, work was, it was hard to find work. Partly maybe because I wasn't qualified, and secondly, there was still, in Spokane, this, the residual of prejudice and so on. Spokane tends to be a pretty isolated place.

TI: So what you do think -- I mean, coming out with a, a degree in chemistry with one year of graduate work, if you were Caucasian or white, do you think you would have a hard time getting a job in Spokane?

FS: Well, probably. Technical jobs were pretty skinny in those days. So, so what I did is I thought, well, well, I'll, I could get a teacher's certificate in a year, and so I went back to Gonzaga under the GI Bill, had some GI Bill left, and thought, well, I'll get a teaching degree and teach. But it was just not a good fit. I, I did that whole year, and I have a teaching, I got a teaching certificate, and I decided, I taught, student-taught chemistry at one of the high schools here -- [laughs] -- and I just discovered that the kids and I just were not going to get along, and they were just more than I, more than I had bargained for. So I thought I'd start looking for work and I, again, I thought, well, God, I was about ready to pack up and move. I heard some job, work available in San Francisco, and so I went over and talked to my old mentor who was, who was my biology, bacteriology instructor at Gonzaga, and he at that time was a consultant to a local pharmaceutical firm. He says, "Well, why don't I see if I can get you a job there?" So he got me my first job, that was in '53, '54, something like that, as, as a chemist/bacteriologist, just general utility man in this pharmaceutical firm. The pharmaceutical firm manufactured allergens, things to treat allergies. So it was a unique kind of a place. And so I, so, you know, it was a job. It didn't pay a hell of a lot, but it was a job. And I went to work there, and after that, we worked, jobs came pretty easily. My first job was a tough one, and I, if I had to, if I hadn't looked after me, I don't think I'd, I'd have moved away.

<End Segment 44> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.