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PF: So getting back to your experience in law school -- thank you for that, by the way -- I was just very curious. Did the GI Bill cover all your expenses, or did you have to work to pay for your tuition?

TT: You know, one of the... in fact, the best thing that I got out of the army, which was basically a very miserable experience. When we got out, a grateful nation had promulgated PL 345, I think it was, the so-called GI Bill of Education, which gave educational support, financial support, to all the veterans, all who served in the war. But over and above that was something called Public Law 16, which was that same support for education, but it was for the veterans who had incurred disability through their war experience and combat experience. And in my case, being a Military Intelligence specialist, a linguist, operating far behind the combat lines, I was not in the path of injury or mortality. But I did contract malaria while I was in Burma. And as a result I got a rating of ten percent disability when I was discharged, which enabled me to get the benefit of PL 16, which paid more benefits than the ordinary PL 345. So I can say that I owe my legal education to one mosquito bite.

PF: Did that cover the rest of your...

TT: Just about everything.

PF: Everything?

TT: Although I did have a part-time job as a waiter at a student dining facility.

PF: What was that like?

TT: Well, we got a free meal, for instance, free lunch. Well, in fact, maybe that was about all that it was. It wasn't much, but at least it was supplemental.

PF: Were you in touch with other Nisei veterans while you were in school? Were there others who were also in school?

TT: There was one other Nisei who entered with me, he was from Hawaii. But he never finished. This I found out later, is that I was the first Nisei to be admitted and to complete law school at Yale.

PF: What was the other vet's name?

TT: I'd rather not mention. [Laughs]

PF: Oh, okay. Did you speak pidgin? Did you have a pidgin accent when you went to Yale?

TT: No, I don't think I had a... although I am capable of speaking in impeccable pidgin English, but I may have said this before, but from first grade on I was, I was educated in what they called the English Standard System where you had to speak proper English to be admitted. But maybe because I lived out in the Kaimuki district where it was not one of those "Japanese ghettos," and my fellow students were just a rainbow coalition of other races. And I guess better English was spoken, but anyway, I started out at Ali'iolani, which was one of the English standard elementary schools, and I completed my high school education at Roosevelt, which was, at that time, the only English standard high school in Honolulu.

PF: So tell me a little bit more about what life was like at Yale for you while you were going to law school. Where did you live, who were your roommates?

TT: Well, first of all, to get into Yale was difficult. It was a long... many more applicants than are admitted. So to get in is hard, and it's, first of all, a wonder that I did get in. It could be that my minority status may have helped in trying to help the law school achieve some kind of racial balance. But only the real smart people are there, and that's what you've got to compete with. When you first got to school and you go to the first class, almost everybody's wearing a Phi Beta Kappa pin. So when people began to see that, oh, this is just common jewelry, you stop seeing these Phi Beta Kappa pins because everybody was, that was commonplace for almost everybody. That's the kind of scholastic and intellectual level that constituted your colleagues. So I said, "Gee, I got to study." So when you asked me what my life was like, it was mostly study. In that kind of competition, I wasn't trying to become the valedictorian, but just merely to survive and get a diploma. That was my objective. And I did succeed; I survived, I survived my three years of education. There was a common wisdom at that time.

At Harvard, there was a famous story that in the first day of class, the professor would announce that, "Look to your right and look to your left because at the end of three years, there's only one of you going to be left." That didn't apply at Yale. Once they let you in, they decided that their judgment was good, and then they kind of dropped you out. And so if you did drop out, it was not from the pressure of the school, but from your own inadequacies.

PF: What are your best memories of law school?

TT: I think my acceptance by my fellow students. You know, they're all educated, and like I said, a high intellectual level. And most of the men were veterans, so they're more mature. They're three, four years more mature than the average college graduate. And so in other words, being a person of Japanese ancestry, I just encountered, I can't think of a single instance where I encountered any discrimination or prejudice or whatever. I was completely accepted. And the funny thing is, on the East Coast, there's a distinct division, you might say, if we're talking about racial relations, those so-called WASPs and the Jewish. And you know, the Jewish kids are smart, and they were, constituted more than half the student body. But I observed that somehow the Jewish guys would hang out together and the WASPs hang out together. But here I am, this one Japanese American from Hawaii, I was totally acceptable by, embraced by both sides. So when you say how was I treated at Yale, I was treated, I think, I couldn't have asked for better. It was a pleasant, like I say, it was one of the pleasantest years of my life.

PF: What kind of law were you studying or what did you focus on?

TT: Well, law school you have your mandatory subjects, and then in the last year or so, you can go into electives. But at that time I had no, you know, I wasn't going to be a patent lawyer or going to be a litigation lawyer. I just wanted a general education. So electives, well, let me tell you one elective I did choose. You know, the common wisdom when you go to law school is, when you get a chance to get electives, don't choose the course, choose the professor. And at that time, well, there was labor law, but there was also a course called Arbitration. And Arbitration was a new concept at that time. This is what is now known as "alternate dispute resolution," but it's all these out of court forums for resolving disputes, arbitration, mediation, fact finding, conciliation, and so forth. This was sort of maybe a pioneer course, and it was taught by Professor Harry Schulman, who was a leading figure in labor law circles. He was so highly regarded that in... he was called to Detroit, and he was the permanent arbitration umpire between Ford Motor Company and the United Autoworkers. And yet here he was, he was our dean also, and he taught arbitration. So I thought I'd take arbitration, never thinking that I'd ever have to use it. It was just to broaden your legal education.

And then to jump ahead, ten years after I got out of law school, I get this call from Ed Nakamura who was the attorney for the ILWU. He calls me up and he says, "Hey, the sugar and pineapple industry here in Hawaii, which has a labor contract with the ILWU, they want to, they have decided to invite you to serve on their arbitration panel." So they have five arbitrators named on a panel, and for disputes between the ILWU and the industry. The people could any one of the five. So I said, okay, I'll go. All I had was this one course. But that turned out to be what ended up as my specialty in my professional career.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.