<Begin Segment 15>

FK: And then that's the time that I went out on this National Youth Administration.

TI: Yeah, so describe that. How did you get selected for that?

FK: Well, this, he was Kaz Shitama, and I can't remember if he was working for the government and how that was, but they were recruiting young people for students, not only from camp but different areas like maybe people who weren't very well off, things like that, and so they took us to this school. We lived in the dormitory, all the girls lived in a dormitory, right by the University of Utah campus. And we all stayed there, and then they took us, we got on this truck, they took us to the schools, and the boys went to trade school. We went, the girls went to, I think I told you, sort of like a business school.

TI: And so what was the purpose of the National Youth Administration? What do you think that was, was...

FK: Well, give advantages to, maybe if you didn't know how to type or take shorthand or anything like that, well, then you give a chance to maybe, to work for a job. But I went to a school in Portland, at that time it was called Commerce High School, but it's Cleveland High School now. But at that time I went, it was more like a business high school, which was, they don't have that anymore. The reason my mother sent me there was because she knew that I couldn't go to college, and she said, "If you go there, at least you're able to, like a business school, so you're able to get a job, so that's what I did."

TI: So was it, you think the National Youth Administration was a similar thinking?

FK: I think so.

TI: That, "We'll get training to these students or young adults, and then they'll be able to then get jobs"?

FK: Yeah, I think so.

TI: So, was there --

FK: But...

TI: Go ahead.

FK: But what happened was, see, the funds ran out. The government only, you get, you get funds from fiscal, end of the, start of the fiscal year 'til the next fiscal year. Well, the funds ran out, and they didn't renew it. So they were all out of job, the people in the National Youth Administration also. But the last two weeks, the funny thing is, the last two weeks before, before they closed up, they offered me a job.

TI: The National Youth Administration?

FK: Yeah. Because, because the reason I went to the business high school, so I knew all my shorthand and I used to type and did all that. So the, the teacher -- I guess she would be a teacher -- she would tell me to go in and take dictation from the director because he needed some help. So I go in there, and so then they offered me a job, and so I had a civil service job for two weeks, and then I had, we had to leave, because no more. But that was on my records, you know, when I went back to civil service.

TI: That you had...

FK: Two weeks. [Laughs]

TI: ...two weeks of... so what happened to everyone, they would go back to camp?

FK: Yeah, so everybody went back to camp. There were some girls from Topaz camp, too.

TI: That's what I wanted to ask you. So there were...

FK: Not... just the Topaz.

TI: Oh, just Topaz and Minidoka?

FK: Uh-huh. And they were, there were about three or four girls from there. And our group, I think we had about eight girls, I think it was about eight girls from Minidoka, but we all had to go back. But in the meantime, I had worked in the National Youth Administration, and there was one lady who knew my, I wouldn't call it my ability, but she knew about me, said, "I have a job for you." So she got me a job as a secretary in the, it was a women's apparel store. And so I came back, I stayed in camp for a couple weeks or so, and then I went back to Salt Lake. And I worked in Salt Lake for a year.

TI: And so did you live by yourself, or did you live with someone else?

FK: No, I lived with this older Nisei couple from Seattle. No, not Seattle, what am I saying? Portland. Who, his, the husband was working as a mechanic in Salt Lake City, and I knew, I knew them well. So they had two boys, and they offered for me to stay with them, so I stayed.

TI: So that worked out well, so you had a place to stay.

FK: Yeah, uh-huh.

TI: And then kind of like a family, and then you had a job.

FK: Yeah, they were, it was good.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2007 Densho. All Rights Reserved.