<Begin Segment 23>

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

TI: So going back to Mr. Prato, so you mentioned that he, perhaps, got wealthy by taking over some farms?

SA: I think so.

TI: Are you talking about the Japanese farms?

SA: I don't know what he did, but he, I didn't ask him where he got so wealthy. But he did. Before, he wasn't, and all I knew was in this short span, all of a sudden he's got a home in Medina, and he's got park-like grounds (...). And he had a wife who had this big place that maybe my mother could help. (My mother) certainly didn't know anything about Caucasian cooking, and she never cleaned a house except our own. This was a come-down for her. I mean, she'd been educated in Japan, she was a teacher. Much as she hated the grocery store, at least it made quite a good income for a while. So this was the lowest she could go, to work under someone.

TI: So what you were able to do, though, was arrange the situation --

SA: It was a safety thing. (It would be for two years, 'til I could support them. Room and board and security was what I asked for).

TI: -- where your dad would help out with the yard and your mom would help out with the house in Medina, and they would live there in Medina.

SA: And it was up to him if he wanted to pay him or not. 'Cause I said, "Give me two years and I'll be through, and I'll take 'em back off your hands." And of course, he liked that idea of free labor, I think. I never, ever got to talk to him on that score. But he was willing to do this, and I thought, "Wow, this is great. Now I can turn around and go home, and tell 'em to pack and he'll meet 'em in," and that's what happened. And so I got back and Sister Antonio was glad to see me. I was glad to get back.

TI: So before you went back, though, did you see your parents in Seattle?

SA: No, he said he would meet them in. So he took 'em directly, I guess, to his place.

TI: Did you ever get any feedback from your parents how it worked out?

SA: Oh, they didn't like it because they did hear from some people, I guess they were free to go to town, I don't know where they heard it, but they heard that you could work at Providence Hospital, it was a great place, they needed dishwashers and people. And because Father Tibesar was from the Maryknoll Division, they were open, and the hotels would take you on as dishwashers, too. And as for the women, they were all doing housekeeping, they're getting on the buses and going in, which is what happened when they learned they were getting money and they could afford a place of their own, of course they wanted to be on their own. So I don't know what kind of arrangements they made, but by the time I got back, there they were (in Seattle on their own). I think the apartment they had was first, all filled with evacuees, of course. But my father was washing dishes at Providence, my mother was going out to Broadmoor and places like that and doing housecleaning. And it was terrible for them because they're not exactly young. And I think that it showed, their Japanese cultural background, gaman, endurance, and do the unendurable, which they did. And they were making a living. It's just amazing.

TI: So let's go, so let's go back to your training. So you went back --

SA: I went back and I finished. I thought it was a great training, like I said, we had the polio epidemic, we had all these things, and I did do a little bit of (private duty). I was trying to get enough money to get back. And so I did at the outset some private duty nursing. But at the same time, I did give the money to the nuns and asked what portion I could keep, 'cause I thought that's what we had to do, and they let me keep it, so I did get a little bit (saved. But) when it came time to go back, I was dependent upon my roommate because it was up to her brother to drive us (back to the coast). He was coming in from New York, he was doing some translating. So he had (a) car and he was gonna come to pick us up, meaning my roommate and I, and then another couple (of girls), one going into Los Angeles, but we were going to drop her off at Denver where her sister was, and they were gonna travel back. But meanwhile, we had to wait for him, and while we were waiting, I did some of that private duty nursing, trying to get enough money.

TI: But then when did the rural nursing come in?

SA: That was (in my) last year. That was still in my student year, but the last quarter.

<End Segment 23> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.