<Begin Segment 17>

TI: You mentioned earlier that after you got to Philadelphia, you quickly wanted to go to school. So tell me about that, so how did you go about going to school?

KG: Well, Philadelphia had an office, student relocation office, and I went right away. And they had a list of schools that would accept Japanese students, they had the colleges that would... because some colleges wouldn't accept Japanese students. So the school that I went to was a very small church-related school. I jumped at that chance because they offered a scholarship in the first place. And also, it was a church-related school, they had a YM and a YWCA organization, and they had done a survey of the student body in terms of whether they, how they would feel about accepting a student from the camps. And I was told it was fairly positive, didn't know exactly, but then I thought, well, I wouldn't have to go through what my brother went through in terms of students rebelling. So that was one of the reasons why I selected the college that I did.

TI: That's interesting, so the YMCA and the YWCA...

KG: Had one of the... that was one of the organizations of the college.

TI: And they had already done like a survey of the student body to see how they would feel? Did they do that with other schools?

KG: I have no idea.

TI: That's interesting. What was the name of the school?

KG: Albright College in Reading, Pennsylvania. It was a very small college, but very strong in science, which appealed to me. I mean, I didn't know that, but I majored in biology and chemistry, and I felt I had a very good education. And from there I got a job working for the Atomic Energy Commission doing research, so I did all right.

TI: Going back to your studies of biology and chemistry, back then, were there very many women who studied chemistry and biology, or was it mostly men who studied chemistry and biology?

KG: No, it was just a class. I guess... well, that school was a strong pre-med school, so there were more men in that field.

TI: And when you started working, like at the Atomic Energy, were there very many women who were working?

KG: Oh, yeah, sure. We were all chem and bio majors, and all... it was Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, New York, which is the Atomic Energy peacetime research lab, which appealed to me.

TI: Now, did you have any concerns or different feelings given that the United States had dropped an atomic bomb on Japan?

KG: No. I knew from the start that it was all peacetime research. I was not concerned about the bomb, that was not at Brookhaven, that was more at Los Alamos and some of the other places.

TI: So this was really focused on, essentially, nuclear energy as an energy source type of thing?

KG: Yeah, they had a cyclotron, I mean, but the biology research was more medical research type. But they had all other departments doing physics and agriculture, that was one big phase, and using radiation, research in radiation and all that. It was strictly peacetime research using atomic energy.

TI: But I'm guessing, though, that you had to probably go through some security clearances?

KG: Oh, yeah, I had to be cleared by the FBI. I had to be cleared by the FBI to get out of camp, and then cleared to get a job. [Laughs]

TI: And what kind of, for your job, what kind of clearance did the FBI do?

KG: I had to send my college transcript and have a recommendation from my professor, one of my professors. And I sent that in, and then they sent me a train fare to go up for an interview. And when I went up for an interview, that's when I got the job.

TI: Now, was there ever a discussion about you being in Tule Lake?

KG: Uh-uh.

TI: They didn't know anything about that?

KG: Uh-uh.

<End Segment 17> - Copyright © 2015 Densho. All Rights Reserved.