Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Lillian Sato Interview
Narrator: Lillian Sato
Interviewer: Megan Asaka
Location: Denver, Colorado
Date: July 6, 2008
Densho ID: denshovh-slillian-01-0015

<Begin Segment 15>

MA: So you attended East High School. Who were your friends in high school? What did you do for...

LS: Well, mostly there was about one, about four of us Japanese girls, and about, one was a Chinese boy and then my brother... about three Asian boys.

MA: And so you were friends and sort of...

LS: Yes, uh-huh. But my brother was the one that was right below me. He was like my mother, real quiet, on the timid side. And then we would have lunch periods where it was split in three. And I of course had my girlfriends, so we always sat together and ate. But it hurt me to see my brother sitting there all by himself, and nobody befriended him. And that was quite painful.

MA: Did you also work during, when you were in high school, did you have a job?

LS: I did some housework on weekends, and then later on I went into taxidermy, making, finishing fur coats and leather coats.

MA: Was this after high school you did that?

LS: No, during high school.

MA: Oh, during high school?

LS: Uh-huh.

MA: So was the housework, was that typical for a lot of, like, the Nisei women to do?

LS: Yes, it certainly was. Yeah, my girlfriend did housework, but she lived in, and she was from Wyoming.

MA: Oh, she was from Wyoming? That's interesting.

LS: Uh-huh.

MA: So you would work on the weekends or something for families?

LS: Just on Saturdays. And on Sundays, we got together with my girlfriend and we went to the California Methodist church. I must have gone there for a couple years, anyway.

MA: Did the church have activities that they would sponsor, or was it mostly just for...

LS: Oh, actually, it would be like baseball mainly. And then going on picnics, that's about all that I remember.

MA: Was the California Methodist Church mainly a Japanese American church?

LS: Yes, it was all Japanese. So that was nice.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright ©2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.