<Begin Segment 5>

MA: And you mentioned you came to the United States in 1975.

NM: That's right.

MA: And how did you, can you talk a little bit about your journey to the United States and how that happened and what motivated you to come here?

NM: After I graduated from my Hiroshima Jogakuin, my college, I worked for the president of Hiroshima University as an official correspondent. But part of my work was serving tea, and after work, going to drinking places with my colleagues. And I didn't really feel that that's my calling, so I was not a very sociable colleague. And I started studying and then reading all sorts of books. And I felt that I really need to develop my potential, and then I really want to see the world beyond Hiroshima and Japan. And that was 1974. The Bishop, who is the top person of Rocky Mountain Annual Conference of the United Methodist church, came to Hiroshima for a commissioning service. And my missionary teacher was supposed to help them to help Bishop and Mrs. Greeley to go to places. But she became ill, so that responsibility came to me. And Bishop asked me many questions. And without really knowing how important person he was, I was just talking about my concern about Japan, and then concern about the state of girls and then women, and then concern about such closed society Japan has become. And while he was leaving, he told me that if I wanted to pursue my education in the U.S.A., write to him, that's what he said. So I did, and he opened the door to go to the U.S.A. to further my education. But, of course, when I told my father that I would be going to the U.S.A., my father told me that that's the last day I would have anything to do with him. And since then, he never talked to me. So I was ostracized. I became a disgrace to him and his family.

MA: And you ended up in Denver, is that right?

NM: That's right.

MA: And what was your school and what was the name of it?

NM: Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado.

MA: And were you, were there other Japanese students there at the time?

NM: I don't remember. Just a few Korean students and just a few students from Africa.

NM: And the school administration people did not know how to handle us, yeah. But it was a difficult, difficult adjustment for me. I didn't have much of a command of English, and I didn't know anything about the U.S.A. I lived in the dormitory, and next door was a tall, husky male U.S. student, and my, I was scared to death. So I think my anxiety level went very high. Not a day passed without kicking and screaming. But, you know, I burned my bridge behind me, so I was not able to go back to Japan. So I needed to graduate from seminary no matter what.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright ©2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.