<Begin Segment 28>

MA: So you went from, then, from Idaho where Minidoka was, to Philadelphia directly to start school.

KB: Yes, by that time, yeah. I had already cut my connection with the Chicago family, so I went directly to Philadelphia.

MA: And that was September of 1943?

KB: Right.

MA: And did you start school right away?

KB: I probably got there maybe a few days before school started, because I was, promised to do lab work. So I had to be oriented in the lab, in the hospital lab at the school, so I probably got there maybe a week before school started. I was given a room in the nurse's quarters, and I had my meals there. So basically I got room and board for being a night technician at the hospital, and that was very helpful for me. Also, I couldn't take the full course.

MA: Because you were working?

KB: Because I was working. They had me as a part-time student, so from that standpoint, it gave me a chance to, to study, and I did very well.

MA: So medical school is usually two years? How long were you...

KB: Four years.

MA: Four years, and how long did it take you...

KB: Took me five years.

MA: Five.

KB: Uh-huh.

MA: So you were going to class during the day, and then, like, working after school or at night?

KB: Right. I was a night technician, so I would start, like, maybe five o'clock, five-thirty, after the day technicians left, and then I would be on call. So I didn't need to do a whole lot of work in the lab unless they had an emergency. And usually the tests were not very complicated, they were simple tests.

MA: So similar to what you were doing in the Tule Lake camp?

KB: Exactly.

MA: Just blood tests and urine samples.

KB: Right, urine tests, exactly.

MA: So when there was an emergency, what would you have to, what would that entail? Would you have to rush back to the...

KB: I would have to go to the lab and get my equipment ready and go and collect blood or whatever, collect urine or whatever. Sometimes the doctors would bring me the samples to examine. Since it was a training hospital, the doctors were learning to draw blood and bring it to me. And it wasn't that strenuous a job. I would have to get up in the middle of the night occasionally.

MA: But it wasn't like you had to stay there all night.

KB: Right, yeah. And I had a room in the building, so it was not like having to drive outside to work or anything like that. It was, it was a very nice arrangement for me, and for the school to do this, I think, was, it was quite nice for me.

MA: So they paid, they covered your room and board, you said?

KB: Right.

MA: And you had, but you had to still pay tuition?

KB: Right. And tuition, well, you know, I was gonna tell you about the tuition at the University of Washington, I forgot. [Laughs]

MA: Sure, yeah.

KB: It was, first, the fall quarter was thirty-three dollars, winter quarter was thirty-dollars, and spring quarter was thirty dollars. And that was, it was a good amount of money in those days. I can't believe what the tuition is now. [Laughs] The tuition at medical school was like maybe a hundred dollars the first year, and maybe it was because I was part-time, it was, like, a hundred dollars. Because I remember borrowing my brother's two war bonds that were fifty dollars (each).

MA: So you paid for your first year with your war bonds, your brother's war bonds.

KB: Yeah. And then I think I got scholarships for the rest of the medical school, of some sort, I probably had to borrow money for part of the time, but anyway, I managed.

<End Segment 28> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.