<Begin Segment 16>

BN: So now to go back to the U, you went to school, you graduate in...

JK: UH?

BN: Yeah.

JK: '47.

BN: And your degree is in?

JK: That degree was in arts and sciences.

BN: And you mentioned that, you had been active in student government, so you got a job right out of, right after graduation with them?

JK: Yeah, right out of college. And when my husband graduated -- we were married in '48, and he was still a student. And so he wanted to go to art school in New York, because he said for him to know furniture, he has to know design.

BN: And so was the idea that he was going to just take over the business?

JK: Yes, that was expected of him. And so we went to New York for a year.

BN: So did you quit your job then?

JK: I thought I did.

BN: But just to go back, what was the job?

JK: It was called a program counselor. And what I did was in Hemenway Hall. It was kind of a student activity center, and I managed the hall. We had a board of governors that I met with (as a faculty member). It was a very interesting job, because I met a lot of people. And the guys that used to play bridge all day or talk under the tree, these are the guys who -- I used to shoo them off to class -- these are the guys who became the leaders in our community. So there's something to playing cards. [Laughs]

BN: Sometimes the troublemakers are, they have leadership skills.

JK: And when I went to New York, I turned in my letter of resignation. But when I was on the way home we took a two months' trip driving to, going to wherever we wanted to go. When I got to the state of Washington, there was a letter waiting for me. They had tried to track me. They didn't accept my resignation. "So you have a job when you come home."

BN: They must have liked you.

JK: So I went right into the job, back into the job.

BN: So how long were you in New York?

JK: A year.

BN: And your husband was going to...

JK: He was going to interior design school full time. And I thought, well, I'll go half time. We couldn't afford for me to go full time too, because the GI Bill wasn't enough to support him and me for the duration.

BN: What school was this?

JK: New York School of Interior Design, an affiliate of New York University, NYU.

BN: And where was that located?

JK: Downtown.

BN: Right in Manhattan?

JK: Manhattan, downtown, fifty-something.

BN: And where did you live?

JK: We lived on West Sixty-Second. So I know the subway. That's when... the vivid thing about that is (the building) was owned by a Jewish man, the lady next door to us, the apartment next door was so neat, I tell you, my room was like a trash bin. [Laughs] It was so small that there was a Murphy bed, a Murphy bed you pull down kind of (bed). And the guys from, who were going to Cornell used to come down to spend some time in New York. So we used to spend a lot of time with them.

BN: You mentioned you visited Maggie in Washington, D.C. Did you venture out other places?

JK: Not at that time. Not at that time, but later on, I took my kids on quite extensive trips around that area. That was a real (...) outstanding trip, I think. We took over a month. We started off in Denver, then went up and down, up and down, got to Washington, went down to Williamsburg and had a grand time there. My mother was with us at that time, and we bought how many pairs of shoes for her, sore, sore, sore (feet). And we found one (in the) ninety-nine cents in a bin, and that was the best shoe. [Laughs]

BN: You didn't take her to Uyeda? Now mother gets all of her shoes from Uyeda, because it's the only one that has her size.

JK: I tell you, we bought so many pairs of shoes (on the mainland for Mother).

BN: When you were in New York, did you socialize with... because there were a lot of Japanese in New York at the time who came out of the camps, even some from Hawaii.

JK: Our best friends were the Kawakamis, who lived on the same street at the other end of the street. Keiji was going to NYU, and his wife was at home. They had a baby girl. So we helped babysit (her) once in a while. We took omusubi and that kind of stuff (and ate) at Central Park, and he said, Keiji used to say, "Let the haoles smell our food and drool over our food." [Laughs]

BN: Which probably wasn't happening. [Laughs]

JK: But we did simple things like that and enjoyed our stay there. And on the way home we stopped in Boston first. We drove up, we bought a car for $125 in New York City, we drove cross country for two months, and sold the car for $125 in L.A. [Laughs] When we were in Boston, we visited with George Akita and his wife. And (my husband) tells me, "Call New York and tell them we're coming back. We're not going home." And I said, "No, no, we can't do that. You promised your father that you would be back in a year to run the store." He said, "No, no, no." We had a big argument.

BN: So he wanted to stay.

JK: He wanted to stay, yeah. He enjoyed it so much.

BN: But you won.

JK: I won. Because he knew he had an obligation. Because the father actually did not want him to go to New York.

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.