<Begin Segment 30>

SY: And then at the time, were you working when you got, when you came back to Los Angeles?

NS: Oh, yes. Yeah, I was working at... I had several jobs, that's why. What was I doing that time? I forgot.

SY: So was it hard when you came to Los Angeles to find a job?

NS: No, no. I got a job right away doing... first job was. I had several jobs, that's why. First I went to office, the little factory, they had a factory. Oh, I know where. My mother, they had a factory near my mother's place, and I went in as a, they need a secretary, so I got a job there. I didn't work that long over there, 'cause I wanted to, I didn't want that kind of, that small job like that. It didn't pay that well, either. I want a better job. And then later on I went out to... some office I worked for a while, and then I worked a few years there. And then after I got married and then I went to Chicago I worked in an office there again. And then when I came back, then I worked someplace, where else? I think I was working in a factory for a while on Sawtelle Boulevard. They had a big factory. They said, the man said they want workers, so I worked for a while there. My mom wanted to work, too. It was making something, I forgot what it was. But I was in the office part, my mother was in the, putting some things together. I don't know what it was, I forgot now. It's not there anymore on Sawtelle Boulevard. And then I got married and got a job at UCLA, diet tech, and became a dietician.

SY: So the job as the diet tech, how did that come about?

NS: Because I had a girlfriend that was a dietician and she taught me what to do.

SY: In camp.

NS: No, this was in the office.

SY: Oh, later.

NS: Later after I got back from Chicago. And I met my girlfriend and she said, "Why don't you work in the kitchen with me as a diet tech?" I said, "I don't have that much experience." I did work in Chicago for while as a diet tech, but I didn't know too much about it then. I just read the book and everything. But she taught me what to do. It took me six months to be a real diet tech. So then I got a job at UCLA, worked twenty years over there.

SY: And so I think we got a little confused, because in camp you worked as a diet tech.

NS: Yeah. Because another friend, this Japanese girl was a dietician, and she wanted somebody to help her.

SY: So there was another friend --

NS: Yes, this was another girlfriend of mine.

SY: After the war you had a friend who was an actual dietician?

NS: Yeah, yeah.

SY: So there were two people who helped you to learn about...

NS: It's funny how I meet all these dieticians. I don't know why, but I guess something to do with the food all the time, I guess. [Laughs]

SY: So these were two separate people?

NS: Yes, yes. That's two separate people.

SY: And so she, the one here in L.A. was, that's where you actually ended up going to school.

NS: Yes. I took, in six months I took. But there's nothing to it, you know. Read the book... giving diets, you got to, everything has to be different. It depends on according to the patient, what you want, right? If you're a diabetic and if you're salt-free diet, sugar free diet, I mean, there's not that much. And if you have some kind of illness, you can't eat this, you can't eat that, you just take out on the menu that's already written, you just cross out all these different things that you can't have, and that's about it that you learn.

SY: And you sort of had some training?

NS: Yeah, yeah. I had an experience in working actually that way. So it was easy for me when I came back here.

SY: And cooking for your family...

NS: Yeah, and making food and stuff like that. Well, some of it, like Chicago, I had to cook, too. But most of the time it was only, lot of time for lunch like that, it was only sandwiches, just make sandwiches.

SY: And you always kept up the cooking no matter what?

NS: Yeah.

<End Segment 30> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.