<Begin Segment 17>

MN: Now, your schooling, which high school did you enroll in in Des Moines?

YH: North High School. First I went to Washington Irving Junior High School.

MN: That was in Long Beach, right?

YH: No, that was, that was also another middle school by the same name in Des Moines.

MN: And then you went to high school in Des Moines.

YH: Yeah, I graduated from the eighth grade in Washington Irving and then went to North High School in the ninth grade through the twelfth grade.

MN: How did the teachers and students treat you there?

YH: Very well.

MN: You had no problems?

YH: No. I know when I went to the country fair in, the county fair in Des Moines, they thought I was American Indian or Spanish. They never thought I was Japanese. They never thought I was Chinese. I don't think they ever saw a Japanese before.

MN: When people came up to you and asked you, did you advertise that you were Japanese?

YH: Well they never came up to ask me.

MN: They just assumed.

YH: Yeah. I don't know what they assumed, but they never came up to ask me.

MN: How did you know, then, people were thinking you were not of Japanese descent, or something else?

YH: Because they would, they would say so, like they'd whisper, but they'd be near enough so I could hear.

MN: After you graduated from North High School, what did you decide to do?

YH: I went to Drake University in Des Moines.

MN: Now, most females at that time really didn't go to college. How did your parents feel about you pursuing higher education?

YH: I think they, they didn't object 'cause I got a scholarship to go there.

MN: And what did you major in?

YH: I think it was English.

MN: Why did you pick English?

YH: 'Cause that was the, that was the language that I earned the most As in when I was going to high school, English or English literature.

MN: What was the ethnic makeup of Drake?

YH: I know there were a few Japanese American boys and a Korean boy, but I was the only Japanese American girl going there.

MN: And how did the other teachers and students treat you?

YH: Very well. 'Cause I used to work at the Drake University periodicals room.

MN: And no one ever gave you any problems. What were you planning to do with your English major?

YH: Gee, I really don't know.

MN: The war ended while you were living in Des Moines. How did you hear about the end of the war?

YH: I think it was one day when I was going to the Iowa Methodist Hospital, because that hospital was only a few blocks from where we lived and I used to take meals for people who came out, who came into the hospital for special diets. Some may have been diabetic, some may have recently had an operation, and they all needed special diets. And the diet nurse would weigh everything out and put them on a tray, so I would always have to know what person, that tray went to that person in the dining room. It was a small dining room, and so I would take the trays into the dining room.

MN: So were you there when the announcement was put out?

YH: Yes.

MN: How did you feel when you heard the war was over?

YH: I was very happy that the war was over.

MN: Was there any reaction in the hospital?

YH: No.

MN: Now once the war ended, why didn't your family return to California?

YH: Gee, I don't know why we didn't return to California. I think that we had roots in Des Moines, so that's why my father decided we should just stay there in Des Moines.

MN: So from what year to what year were your family in Des Moines?

YH: Let's see, from the time we left Denson, gee, that was '42?

MN: '43.

YH: '43. '43 to '49.

<End Segment 17> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.