<Begin Segment 8>

TI: Well, then let's talk about after high school. So after you graduated from high school, and this, I'm guessing, is about 1929, around then?

KK: Yeah. '29 was when I graduated high school.

TI: Okay, so you graduated in 1929, then what did you do after high school?

KK: Oh, I went to UCLA.

TI: So was it pretty common for women to go to the university during this time?

KK: Oh, there were quite a number there. In fact, the gals that my sister hobnobbed with, they were starting a Japanese club. But she graduated and went off, so when I got there, then I joined that. And actually, that was... I can't remember too well, but I think that's about the first time I had really intimate Japanese friends. Up to then, it was just kind of sketchy.

TI: So I'm curious, did your parents encourage you to go to UCLA? Did they want you to go there?

KK: They never said whether they thought I should go or not. But my cousin who came over before, went directly from high school to college. And when Shiz graduated from high school, she just went directly to college. It just seemed like the thing to do. So just, we just went on to college.

TI: And then what did you study in college?

KK: Oh, I majored in home economics. I understand it's, there's no more home economics. They dissolved that department and parceled out all the courses to the different sciences.

TI: So back in, I guess, 1929, 1930, where was the campus located for UCLA?

KK: Oh, we were, I was the first class that went out to Westwood. It used to be on North Vermont Avenue, and the campus became too small. And so when, when the realtor out there in... you know where Westwood is?

TI: Uh-huh.

KK: When the realtor was parceling out that one, the university people saw it and they bought a great big hunk of the real estate there.

TI: But before that, it was on North Vermont?

KK: North Vermont.

TI: So was that closer to USC, in that area?

KK: Well, it's on the same arterial, but that University of California, southern branch, it was called, was at one end. And USC is way down here. I think it was around Fortieth Street. But, of course, there was a lot of real estate between that, because from the campus of University of California, I would say there's about, must have been one or two miles until they came to the First Street. And then it started in and up the ladder.

TI: But it's historic that you were the first class to graduate from Westwood. 'Cause you started the first year.

KK: Yes, that's right.

TI: So you were the first graduating, or the full graduating class at Westwood.

KK: Yeah.

TI: What was campus like in those days? It must be very different from what it looks like now.

KK: Yeah, when we went they had just finished building the buildings. And there was no landscaping; the walkways were such that every time it rained, it turned into a flood. There's, place where they decided to put the campus was on the crown of a hill, and so then they put a bridge across to the high points, and that was the main entrance to the school. When you get on the other side, then they had, Royce Hall was on the right-hand side, the physics, no, the chemistry building was just before that, but that was built later. When I went there, they only had the Royce Hall and the library, and the physics building was being built. And after the physics building, the chemistry building went up. So all the time that I was there, they were building something. But we did start from ground zero, 'cause it was just plain old ground before that.

TI: Wow, that's amazing. It's interesting to hear how UCLA, the Westwood campus started. That's interesting.

KK: Yeah. Well, now it's huge. It just goes from here to there, who knows how much farther they've gone, I don't know.

TI: And during that year, were there very many other Japanese attending UCLA? You mentioned that women's...

KK: Yeah, the women's group. Well, there was a men's group... what did they call that? I can't remember, Bruin Club or something. Anyway, they were organized. They -- excuse me -- the women, number of women didn't increase as fast as the men. So the men got organized long before the women.

TI: And so in ratio, in terms of the number of Japanese American men to Japanese American women, what was the ratio, roughly?

KK: Well, maybe three to one. There were many Japanese men that wouldn't say boo to anybody. [Laughs]

TI: And so what did you think of Japanese Americans at UCLA? You said this is the first time that you really spent more time with Japanese Americans. So what was your impression of Japanese Americans?

KK: Oh, I thought that was fine, yeah. 'Cause we'd never had Japanese friends before that.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.