<Begin Segment 22>

TL: Did most of your high school classmates go on, continue in their family businesses or were they also thinking of going on for further education?

YB: Lot of them have continued with their businesses in Solvang I recall, and others have gone to school to Santa Barbara, and maybe Los Angeles and elsewhere they could study in colleges.

TL: What kind of encouragement did you receive to pursue further education?

YB: I think Mrs. Westcott, our Camp Fire leader, has helped me a lot. And my interest was really in art, so when I moved to Santa Barbara and entered Santa Barbara State Normal -- they changed that name so I don't know what it is now -- but it was on the hilltop, a beautiful college there. And there again I was the only Oriental. But there were students from all over the country, who loved being there because of the view, you get the whole bay... the sound, the islands. But it was a small group and it was very nice going to school while I did go. I eventually dropped out because my mother was ill and she needed care. I did make that trip to Japan in the meantime and took time out for two months. And then came back and returned but only to have to drop out.

TL: So your interest in art, evolved in your earlier years in school? Was there a favorite form of art that you had?

YB: I... had a teacher who was very much interested in my drawing. And he taught us stagecraft; we'd make miniature stagecrafts. And learned to make interior decorations by drawing pictures of an interior and also of an exterior, all in one, with different coloring. So that according to the color (lighting) cast onto the stage, it would bring out the interior scene or the exterior scene. And I was having fun working on that. And the teacher and his wife had no children, was very much interested in me. He says, "Yone, you know, we'd like to take you to Hollywood with us." He said, "We've been called to report over there for a position. We'd sure like to take you over there and get you interested in this field that you're doing so well in." And I told Mom, and Mom says, "I wouldn't think of letting you go alone in a strange town." In the old days parents were being very strict. And I thought, oh shucks and I wanted to go so bad. But there again I lost a chance of going to learn a career, which I still wished I had.

<End Segment 22> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.