<Begin Segment 55>

TI: Now, I'm curious about just, Edmonton in terms of... did very many Japanese Canadians resettle in the Edmonton area?

HS: Not a lot at the beginning. A few began to, there was a lot of them that came, southern Alberta was the destination for a lot of them who came from the West Coast, and they went working for the sugar beets. And they made their way, eventually some of them made their way eventually to become a situation where they could send their children to university and so quite a few of them came up from the south, came to Edmonton to work, to go to university, and then a lot of them stayed in Edmonton to whatever professional areas they got into. About 1949, there was no restriction. Well, even in 1946, there was no restriction in what you could do in Alberta. We could go in law, although law did have some restrictions still going on. I mean, they, it would be a gentleman's agreement that they wouldn't, say, have Orientals there at the beginning, in the early 1940s or '50s. But gradually they, those restrictions were dropped, and people came.

TI: So in general, would you say the, the climate, like the racial climate was better in Edmonton than in, say, on...

HS: Officially it was better, yes.

TI: Officially, but how about just amongst the people?

HS: Amongst the people, well, there weren't enough of us to make a big (issue).

TI: Well, maybe, yeah, so just like if you're an Edmonton person, how would they generally, or how was your reaction or relationship with the Edmonton people?

HS: It never came as a problem, you know that? It was, we were, from the very beginning, we found the, when I went to University of Alberta, I was treated just like any other university student. Even though I was, that I was a visible minority. But they had enough, they had enough Japanese people go through the periods long before, I mean, there was a long tradition of association with people from Japan, prominent people, and like the Prince Takamado and people like that, that that idea had been promulgated years ago, relationships that, these are direct relationships because that was the only university that would accept, say, Japanese students from Japan. And that was the only, that was, like, they could go out to Toronto or Winnipeg, but Alberta was the closest to the West Coast. And the medical school, like I say, they had graduated a number of Japanese students that went on into medicine, and there was, so there was a tradition there that they continued to honor. So there was no question, as long as my qualifications were right, I could get into pre-med.

<End Segment 55> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.