<Begin Segment 12>

MA: So when you sort of started high school and were going through high school, was it always a given that you wanted to go to college? Or when did you start thinking about, that you wanted to continue in your education and go on to college?

KB: Probably not 'til maybe later on in high school. I did very well in class, however, in the back of my mind, I wasn't sure whether I would make it to college. So I took courses like typing, bookkeeping... what other? Mostly some, what they called the commercial classes.

MA: Why didn't you think you were --

KB: Huh?

MA: Why didn't you think you were going to go to, why you may not go to college?

KB: I just didn't know financially if I would be able to make it, if my parents would be able to support me. I knew that my grades probably were good enough to get me in. You never know, the common thing for girls in my community, in the Japanese community was to get married as soon as they graduated from high school. Most of my friends, some of them were in arranged marriages, and maybe that's what was expected of me. But I wasn't about to do it. [Laughs] I mean, I knew myself that that's not the way I wanted to, to go. So just in case my parents were gonna set a fuss over my going to college, I thought, "Well, I might get a job," so I took those so-called commercial courses. But I also did other classes which would make me eligible to go to college. And I was a good student, so I could handle it without any difficulty.

MA: How did your parents feel about you wanting to go on to college and continue your education? Were they supportive?

KB: They were after I talked to them about it. I hesitated for quite a while, to say anything, but they were supportive. In fact, they encouraged me to go.

MA: What were some of your, I guess, activities and hobbies that you did in high school, maybe after school or on the weekends?

KB: I wasn't very much of an athlete. [Laughs] I was trying to think, we had some, like cooking classes and sewing classes and woodworking classes, things like that, that I took. Seems to me I volunteered in the library. I was also, in my senior year, a member of the service club. I can't remember exactly what it was called, but we got to wear a red sweater with a big 'C' on the sleeve, and monitor hallways and things like that. And I tried to be as active as I could in school, but not sports-wise, not athletic.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.