Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collectiom
Title: Toshi Nagamori Ito Interview
Narrator: Toshi Nagamori Ito
Interviewer: Martha Nakagawa
Location: Laguna Woods, California
Date: November 9, 2010
Densho ID: denshovh-itoshi-01-0011

<Begin Segment 11>

MN: Now, that summer that you graduated from junior high school, your family also visited Vancouver, Canada?

TI: Uh-huh.

MN: How was your family able to afford going to Vancouver?

TI: Well, my father had sold enough insurance that he qualified to go to their convention. And so instead of taking a train, we drove up. And since my mother had a friend in Vancouver, we went to visit them. And we were to stay in Vancouver, and then my father went on to Jasper Park where the convention was held. And they didn't have enough room for spouses that time. Sometimes they did.

MN: Now, what did you think of Vancouver?

TI: I thought it was a very beautiful city, and I really liked their Stanley Park where they had the big totem poles and various things. It was so different from down in California. And it's so green up there in Washington, I mean, Vancouver. Not Washington.

MN: Close by. Now, you came back and then you entered high school. John Marshall High School?

TI: Right.

MN: And what was the ethnic makeup of your high school?

TI: Well, it was predominately Caucasian. There were Mexicans and some Italians, and a goodly number of Japanese students, yeah.

MN: Now, you also joined a outside social club called the Junior Misses?

TI: Yes.

MN: Can you share with us what the Junior Misses was?

TI: It was the YWCA Girl Reserve club. And I wanted to join a social club, so since my mother was a board member of the YWCA Japanese branch, through her, she found out that Miyo Kikuchi was a club leader. And so she lived one block down the street from my home. So she invited me to ride with her to meetings that they had.

MN: And then what sort of activities did you do with the Junior Misses?

TI: Well, we invited the boys YMCA clubs to dances, and we would also have skating parties at the Shrine Skating Rink, and we would go there. So that was our club activities.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.