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TI: So, Dorothy, you went to the University of Utah, too, right, after high school?
DI: Yes, I did. I completed one semester. I think they were on a semester basis. My parents went back to Mountain View earlier, and I said I wanted to stay and finish out the school year, I mean, school semester. So I stayed a few months beyond that, packed my one suitcase, put on my gabardine suit, my high heeled pumps, checked out of school, got my grades to transfer over to San Jose State, got my application for transfer, went to the train station, got on the Southern Pacific, went across that Salton Desert into California, traveled by myself. I couldn't see out the window, it was just completely full of dust and stuff, I couldn't see out. And the train went to Oakland, and from Oakland I transferred over to the ferry to go over to San Francisco. And from San Francisco to the railroad station, the Southern Pacific. And from there I went to the Mountain View depot. Then I walked three blocks home carrying a suitcase in my heels. I don't see how I did it. And another thing when I think back, it was safe. I was very innocent, I didn't know about dangers that could occur, and it was safe in those days. And I just came back by myself, and I had no fear. I just merely asked where to go, where to check in, and bought my ticket. I just walked home.
TI: So your parents...
DI: They were working out in the field.
TI: And they heard, when they were still in Utah, they heard it was okay to go back to California? Do you remember much about that?
DI: They were in Utah and they heard it was okay to go back, and so they gave notice to the Toone family, the landlords, that they were leaving to go back home. And they just left, they packed up and left.
TI: And then you decided to stay...
DI: And I decided to stay because I was staying at a private home with another classmate, Helen Shimizu, who was a, the family lived up in Cottonwood Canyon, they had a home there. So she and I roomed together at this Japanese family, and we took the streetcar to college, to the university from there.
TI: So you just decided to stay on your own.
DI: So we were on our own. I wanted to go to college 'cause my mother had brainwashed me all those years, I had to go to college, so I went. And I just did what I was told. I was never taught to really think and give any type of argument. It never even occurred to me to even say no, I just went. That's just the type of brainwashing I had early on. So I did what my parents told me, and then I transferred over to San Jose State, mostly women there. And then that spring quarter, the veterans came, and that's when I met Bob and your father. They were always together.
TI: So when you went to San Jose State, were there many Nisei there at the time when you first got there? That was in, what year was that?
DI: I graduated high school in '45, and the veterans came in '46, spring of '46, I think, because it was the following spring they came. And then I found a fellow Mie kenjin family friend, Claire Funabiki. And so she and I palled around. I also found another friend from Nihongakkou days, Alice Nishimura.
TI: So when you got to San Jose --
DI: And then I found Lucille Nagashima that I graduated Jordan High School with. She was there at San Jose State. Yeah, there was quite a group of Japanese students. And once your father and the veterans came, there were quite a few Japanese then, lot of Chinese. So there was a Chinese student club, and the Japanese students organized the Deltans club. They said it was a service club; it was actually a social club just to get to know each other.
TI: So there was an influx, and they were all the Nisei who were veterans in World War II coming back?
DI: Uh-huh. They were all older men.
<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.