<Begin Segment 28>

MN: What year did you finally graduate from Long Beach Poly High?

YK: Well, I graduated in 1950, But there were two special tests that happened, that it influenced my life. One was sort of a psychological test where they give you a whole bunch of questions and then however you answer 'em, you were either an introvert or an extrovert. And, of course, they didn't have control over how you answered, so everybody answered "extrovert," and I was the lone person in the middle, and they said, "What is he?" She said, "Well, he's the ambivert." They said, "Ambivert? What the heck is that?" And she said, "Well, they used to think that such people were crazy, but now they think, well, maybe they're the most adjusted, 'cause they're sort of in between, they're neither extroverts or introverts, or actually part of both. So that affected my (whole) life. And the other was, they had a Kueter Preference (test) where what kind of interests you have to consider for going to college, and I came out high in design although I had never designed or drawn a picture in my life. So when I was considering going to college, you had to declare a major, so my brothers who had the plant nursery said, "Why don't you be a landscape architect? And you can draw the designs for the plants, gardens." And I thought, well, I didn't know what else to do.

So I went to UCLA (that) had the course, but you only had one year there and I had to transfer to Berkeley for three years. And the one thing fortunate at UCLA was that the Korean War started out, and I was able to get a college deferment, so I didn't have to go in the army then. The other thing at UCLA was that I was pretty far from the campus, and this dormitory, it was almost all hakujin except for one Japanese who was a senior. And we had to either take a bus or most of 'em hitchhiked to get to the main Westwood Boulevard, and then you had the long walk to the campus. But I had to, every Saturday, work at the Laguna Nursery to pay my way, so every Friday afternoon, I had to take the bus to Long Beach which took me two hours. Then I would take the next morning, get up to go work in Long Beach.

MN: Laguna, right?

YK: I mean, Laguna (Beach) from Long Beach. And then we would go out on Saturday night, and then sleep late Sunday and then take two hours to get back to UCLA. So I didn't have much time for studying, so I didn't do too good in my grades there. [Laughs]

MN: And then you transferred to UC Berkeley after a year.

YK: Yeah, went to UC Berkeley. And there I was able to stay at a Nisei men's dorm where there were about fifteen of us, and then there were about ten more who just ate there. They slept somewhere else. So it was all Niseis, and the guys running it were mainly veterans. So it was kind of nice. They would have various games each night, bridge and poker, chess. But after a while I learned that, especially bridge, you don't get involved. Because once you get in there, nobody wants to quit, I said, "I've got to go study," so I learned to say no. And chess would take forever, too. But we'd have dances there, too, and so it was kind of fun. And then there would be other (things). There was the Nisei Bears Club, and they would have various dances and so forth. So we had the social activities. Because at UCLA, all the activities were on Friday and Saturday nights, but I always had to go back to Long Beach, so I missed out on a lot of things, on the social part. So Berkeley was more (enjoyable). And then, too, everybody had more time to study, too.

MN: Yeah, you were at Euclid Hall, right?

YK: Yeah, Euclid Hall.

MN: That was eventually sold, I understand.

YK: Yeah.

MN: In the '60s, maybe, in the '70s?

YK: I don't know. It still is kind of a rooming hall for students. 'Cause we visited a couple years ago.

<End Segment 28> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.