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TI: And so you're doing that, you're working the dry goods, doing dresses, and then what happens next?

KK: Well, about that time, people, Nisei parents -- no, not Nisei, the parents of the Nisei, thought that the girls should go to Japan and get finishing school, if you know what I mean. Culture, they called it. So they had those while I was still in school, and I wouldn't quit school to go to one of those things. So along about then, about two years after I graduated, the Christian church decided that they would sponsor a student, Christian student, Christian student culture study of Japan or something like that, I don't know. And so they got together, this bunch of people that wanted to send their kids. So at that time, by that time, my older sister had gone to Berkeley, my younger brother went to Berkeley, went off to school. So I had said, "Well, okay, I don't want to go away to school, I want to travel afterwards." So I told Pop that that's what I wanted to do. So he got wind of this group that was going, and he entered my name in there. So I told him, "Well, you saved enough money from my not going to foreign places during school time," that now I wanted to travel. And so he kept his promise that I could go. Where he got the money, I don't know. This is the height of the Depression. So anyway, I think he took my salaries that had been accruing in the store and sent that to me. Every month, he sent me forty-nine dollars.

TI: And before we continue to Japan, you're right, you mentioned you're in the height of the Depression. And so how did the store do during this time? I imagine many of the customers had a hard time paying for things?

KK: Oh, there were always those guys that, you know, tried to, bought on credit. But I think, by my thinking, Pop was pretty lenient with folks. Because later on, people would come and give him some money, said that's to pay for the bills or whatever, something like that.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.