<Begin Segment 18>

MN: How did you feel about having to leave Heart Mountain?

YY: I don't know one way or another. It's something you had to do, so I didn't question it. 'Cause I have to go anyway.

MN: And you weren't old enough to say to the Takahashis that you want to stay?

YY: Yeah, but who's going to take care of me? I needed their support because I was still a kid. So I go where they go.

MN: Do you have any memories of the train ride from Heart Mountain to Michigan?

YY: I don't think it was a train ride, per se. I can't remember how we got there. I don't recall.

MN: I just assume it was a train ride because...

YY: Probably. I don't even remember.

MN: And then you said you lived in the basement, right?

YY: Uh-huh.

MN: Did you and Mrs. Takahashi help out at the church?

YY: No, we just did dishwashing when they had banquets like five hundred people or something. We didn't have a machine, so we washed and wiped, and it took us hours and hours and then we'd get about five dollars apiece. We'd make about fifteen dollars, so we split it three ways to get five dollars. [Laughs] I hated that, it was so tedious.

MN: Now which high school did you attend?

YY: Royal Oak High School, Royal Oak, Michigan, high school. Royal Oak High School is what it was called. It's was all Caucasian, suburban, and from the countryside that came in. They bussed the country kids in.

MN: How far was the high school?

YY: To me it was a long way because I had to walk. There was no transportation over there. And my ojisan never offered, so I trudged over there. I never expected it. I never asked. He never offered. I had galoshes, too, I didn't have boots, leather boots. And my feet were freezing. It was quite a trudge, but you do what you have to do. I mean, I had no choice. I don't know why I never asked them, but he never offered.

MN: How would you compare the cold in Michigan to the cold at Heart Mountain?

YY: I don't know. The Michigan seemed a lot colder, 'cause I had to trudge through it and wait for the bus. My toes were, like, frostbitten and so painful. You wait for the bus, you miss one and you have to wait another twenty minutes. It was awful. And then, of course, they look at me funny, too.

MN: And you said you were the only Japanese American.

YY: Uh-huh. That they've ever seen. There was a Chinese girl, 'cause there was a Chinese laundry in Royal Oak, she just graduated ahead of me. That's when I came in, so of course they're looking at me like, "What are Japanese people like?"

MN: Did you feel pressure?

YY: Oh, yeah. I had to study like mad so they won't think we're stupid. I was, they said, a quiet studious girl, they thought of me, because I was very quiet. Because I was shy. I don't belong there, I didn't feel I belonged there. But the only people I told you, the suburban people are very high class. But the kids from the country, they befriended me and they were very nice to me. They invited me over, so I'd take the bus and go to their house, have lunch and things like that. So it was nice. The teachers helped me out because they knew how I was feeling. So especially my English teacher, I loved English lit, so she was really good to me.

MN: Can you share with us how you did on the English tests on Shakespeare?

YY: Oh, I got a, I was the only one in five classes that got an A, she said. She didn't tell them, but they all knew it was, because "Studious Yuri, she's quiet but she studies." I loved that, Shakespeare and all that, so I memorized everything. She was a Scottish woman, but she was so good to me. Because I told you, all these book reports, everybody had to do it orally, I said, "I just can't possibly get up there and do it. I just can't." So she let me write it. I mean, what teacher will do that for you? She did, and she was very good to me.

MN: Now, at Heart Mountain you were in the choir, in the Sextets, did you join the high school choir in Michigan?

YY: Oh, I did. [Laughs] I don't have a voice, so they said, "You could audition for it." So bravely, I went to -- I wasn't good, but they accepted me. So I was in the big choir over there.

MN: Did you perform in different schools?

YY: In groups. Not by myself. That was so funny. I was always doing some strange things, I don't know. So this girl had to go down the steps and hit a note, so we all did. I followed her down, I didn't know what I was doing. I was so embarrassed, I followed her back up. But I'd get so nervous, oh, gosh. So I do a lot of stupid things. [Laughs] Those things stay in my mind, because I remember I was doing things like that.

MN: So how would you compare the education you got in Michigan to the one you were getting at Heart Mountain?

YY: No, nothing like Michigan. The other place was, I wouldn't even consider it a real class, say.

MN: So would you say Royal Oak really pushed your education higher?

YY: Michigan, yeah, but not over there. Didn't do a thing for me. Maybe I wasn't interested, I don't know. Because I would cut class.

MN: What did you do when you were cutting class at Heart Mountain?

YY: Oh, we'd go to the canteen and do what we'd like to do. There was just a few of us. That influence, I just tagged along.

MN: So how long did you attend the Royal Oak high school?

YY: About seven months, I think, finish up my senior year.

MN: Did you go to, like, the high school prom?

YY: No. Nobody asked me, because I'm a stranger. They'd be embarrassed, I think.

MN: How did you feel about not going to those activities?

YY: Well, I expected it. I wasn't expecting anybody to ask me.

MN: How about the graduation ceremony?

YY: Oh, I was there.

MN: Did anybody else come out to graduation?

YY: Just my obasan, because Ojisan said it was, "Unless it's the college, I'm not coming," so she came. But, you know, they have the upper third class Golden... I forgot what it was, something society. The teachers have to choose the students. So there was a lot of student there that were trying for years, and here I come in, short time, and they let me in. So I think they were a little bit jealous, prejudiced, about me getting in. So I was kind of happy myself. I was proud to go down the, my graduation.

MN: Well, you must have done really well.

YY: Well, I had to study so hard. Because it didn't come natural, just had to study. [Laughs] I mean you really buckled down and do it.

MN: Now while you were going to high school, did you also have to work?

YY: Yeah. I was doing babysitting and cleaning houses and things like that to get my allowance.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.