<Begin Segment 11>

MA: How was it returning to the U.S. after three years?

SO: Oh, it took me a few months to get readjusted, because like I told you, the first thing I couldn't do is the math, you know, I mean, over here. [Laughs] It's different; it's feet and inches, and over there is all, it's metric, so I had to adjust over. They say so many inches, and then I had to figure out what is an inch? That's two-and-a-half, what is it, about two-and-a-half centimeters, isn't it? Something like that. But other than that, I didn't have any problems.

MA: And when you came back, did you go directly back into high school?

SO: No, I came back and I helped my folks with the hotel for... when I came back I was seventeen, so twenty... what did I do there? I helped them at the hotel there for about four or five years, I think. I think I helped them in the hotel for four or five years, and then I was able to get a job as a farm hand, and I worked on the farm for a few years to earn some extra money. The truck gardening they called it, just vegetable farms run by Japanese.

MA: Was that common in Spokane?

SO: It was common here, yeah. There was quite a few truck gardeners, they called it truck gardening. And I was one of 'em eventually, that's what I wound up doing, I bought my own place. In fact, you (ran) over it today, that's where they built the freeway, right over my farm, part of the freeway when you come into town. That's (why) I lost my farm. Well, (the state) bought it from me, but I mean, I lost the farm.

MA: And you, you had mentioned that you got your high school equivalency, you took an exam?

SO: Yeah, I went through a... which I got that from American schools, (it) was through a correspondence course, I got it. And then after that, I was bored, so I took up automotive repair, went to night school here to Lewis & Clark for two-and-a-half years. And like I told you, I had a good chance of going down to California, one of the major automotive schools there, and then the war broke out and that put the kibosh on that. They wouldn't let us in, they were kicking everybody out of California, remember, World War II? So I lost my education there. Then after that, I went to another, took another correspondence course with DeVry Technical in Chicago, then I had to go over there for two weeks, or more than two weeks, I think, to do some bench work, then I got my diploma in electronics. I still haven't got (a) college education. [Laughs]

MA: Going back a little bit, why did you decide to do a correspondence course instead of going back to high school?

SO: Well, 'cause I wanted, I wanted to earn (extra spending money). I can't be working (and attending) school at the same time, I'm full-time. Correspondence, well, I took my time, studied when I could. It took a couple years, but that's better than four years.

MA: I see.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.