<Begin Segment 19>

[Ed. note: This transcript has been edited by the narrator]

TI: Earlier you mentioned how your older sister was valedictorian at Broadway. When you went to Washington junior high school, when the students were there with, say, Caucasian, Jewish, how well did the Japanese do in classes in terms of grades?

SA: Oh, they were always on top (but the competition was there with) the Jewish people (...). But if you look at the list of the valedictorians and the salutatorians, like the year my sister was valedictorian, (1938) Ben Uyeno, the doctor, was the salutatorian. And almost everybody, (Japanese Americans made) the honor roll (...).

TI: So did that make it tough for Japanese Americans who weren't really good in school?

SA: I don't know (how they felt, but it must have been hard).

TI: [Laughs] I think I've interviewed a few of them.

SA: But you know, this is the astounding thing, the very ones that failed are the ones that are successes today. They're the ones...

TI: Oh, tell me about it. Why do you think that is?

SA: I don't know. Because they had nothing to lose, they take the risks. That's what I think. Because I know I was talking to one person (who was a failure in school, but today) he owns a lot of property around town (...). But they were very poverty-stricken, to the point that even now, one of the girls keeps talking about how Ms. Mahon, again, would call her into the office and how humiliated she would be to wear clothes that she, that Ms. Mahon was trying to put on her. Used clothes, of course. And she would have to go back to the classroom wearing things that (...) didn't fit, and how she still (feels bad and) remembers to this day. And she really felt it, and so did her brother. But (today) he know he's very well-off, every child of his owns enough property to be self-sustaining, (will inherit enough materially to be very secure).

TI: So some of the, the Japanese Americans who did not do well in school, you're saying later on --

SA: They are doing the best.

TI: -- did really well.

SA: And the only reason I could think of is because as he said, "You had the same opportunities, you just didn't take the risk," and he's right. We're careful and cautious, and we never get anywhere when (our) salary is (enough)? So there is something to this business of not having anything.

TI: That's interesting. When you're going to school, like junior high school, what were your favorite topics? What did you enjoy doing?

SA: I wasn't aware of any one that was my favorite. Of course, I liked to draw, but I never went into it. I wanted to, actually, when I finished high school, but the war was on. I ended up in the practical subjects like nursing and teaching and librarianship, which were about the only things women our age could do.

TI: You mentioned earlier your older sister was a good student.

SA: She was a maverick. (She spoke several languages, studied French, Russian and Japanese, of course).

TI: How about your older brother?

SA: He's a pharmacist.

TI: And so was he a good student also?

SA: Yes, I think he could have excelled more, but he didn't (go on to graduate school).

TI: And so was it hard for you to follow in the footsteps of these...

SA: I wasn't even following.

TI: Why is that?

SA: I don't know, (...) I think, because they considered me kind of sickly. (I had respiratory problems but) after the third grade I was fine. (...) Of course, you don't fail (in schools -- but get caught up to grade level) because then you're singled out more. (But) I did all right. (Narr. note: It's after the World War II years that I did get degrees in nursing, in education, and a master's in librarianship, all connected to what I was doing at that time.)

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.