<Begin Segment 19>

MN: Now, how long were you at Heart Mountain before you left for the Methodist college in Kansas City, Missouri?

TI: I was there just two months.

MN: Now, how did it --

TI: August and September, end of September I was gone.

MN: How were, how did it come about that you were able to leave for college so soon?

TI: Well, they told us -- I read in the Heart Mountain paper that they would let you out if you found a college that would accept you and also provide housing. So again, we went to Mrs. Douglas, and she found a Methodist college in Kansas City, Missouri, that would accept me, so I went there.

MN: Now, can you share with us how you met your future husband, Mr. Ito?

TI: Yes. I went to his office, he was in charge of leaves from Heart Mountain. So I went to his office and I said I would like to leave for this college in Kansas, City, Missouri, so he gave me papers to fill out. And in those days, there wasn't a copy machine or ball point pens, so you had to take a pencil and three carbon papers and press very hard and answer all these questions that they wanted answered. And then finally my permit came, and so I left for Kansas City. And the day I left, Jim came down to see the two girls that he got to, going to college, yeah, he wanted to see us off. So he came down and I guess that was the first time he really looked at me. [Laughs] Because I was wearing a dress and silk stockings and high heeled shoes, you know. And so, and then when I came back the first summer, he came over to see how college life was, and then we started to date. [Laughs]

MN: Now, this other person you went out with, did she also go to the same college with you?

TI: A year later, Yuri, yes.

MN: Now, how was the train ride from Heart Mountain to Kansas City?

TI: It wasn't bad because -- but, they sold more tickets than they had seats, and so sometimes some of us had to sit on our suitcase. And so it's very uncomfortable sitting on a suitcase, it's so hard, and it has these clasps. So the first stop, I got off the train and bought a magazine and put it on the clasp so it was more tolerable to sit on. [Laughs]

MN: But the passengers didn't harass you?

TI: No, no.

MN: Now, how did it feel to be traveling away from your family, you're going to an unknown place...

TI: Yes. It was kind of scary. It was really scary for me, and I kept wondering, would I get off at the right place?

[Interruption]

TI: Yes, the, my roommate to be, Milly Kerwin, came down and also the president's wife.

MN: Now, do you know if they had a difficult time finding a roommate for you?

TI: No. It's a Christian college, and they knew my situation, and so they chose a very outgoing personality girl for my first roommate. And she really was diametrically opposite from what I was. She was blonde, she was blue-eyed, she was Irish-English extraction, and she came from a huge family of, I think, seven brothers and sisters, and I was an only child. And she spoke with an Eastern accent, and I would say "bath" and she would correct me and say, "bauth." [Laughs] And if she would say, "idea," everything that ended with an "a" ended with a "er." So, "That's a good 'idea-er,'" she would say. [Laughs] And so I would tell her, "I have to correct your pronunciation of 'idea.' There's no 'E-R' on the end, there's a 'A' on the end. It's 'idea.'" But she would still say, "idea-er." Oh, we had a good time laughing at each other.

MN: Now, were there other Japanese Americans at National College?

TI: Yes, there were.

MN: How many more?

TI: Let me see. Shizu Yamaguchi was there for only one semester. And then, then Yuri came, and then we had, the president's secretary was Japanese, Fumiko Kobayashi, she came out of, I've forgotten which camp, and she worked for the president. And then we had boarders also, Japanese American boarders at the dormitory, and one was Kay Kumai.

MN: So you could have boarders there but not, they don't have to necessarily go to the school?

TI: No. They had rooms, so they rented them.

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.