<Begin Segment 16>

KU: Can we go back to how you got to the center to begin with? So how was it that you came to the center, and was that your first job?

EO: My first job. My whole married life, my husband gave me an easy life. I think what started the whole mess was when we built that house in Sierra Madre, he asked for his own bedroom. That crushed me. I said, "Fran, that's when we talk. We talk things over every night. We won't have that." I guess he just laughed it off, he had other plans, I think, I don't know. Anyway, so that was that. And then a few years later, I met somebody I really liked, and he liked me. And we were seeing each other secretly for a long time. When my husband found out about it, he moved back into the bedroom but it was too late, too late. So I finally divorced my husband, and I didn't ask for any money because I humiliated him. Because a lot of people knew we were seeing each other, I think. I humiliated him and he didn't want to give me any money, so he gave me fifty dollars alimony, that was it. And my husband, my new man, he left his wife, but he was poor. [Laughs] Very poor. But together we could make out, so I was looking for work. And Mary told me, "Mom, they're looking for an administrative assistant at UCLA. Why don't you at least go down for an interview?" I went down and Susie Wong was in charge of the committee, Denorah Gill, Laura Ho, mostly women. Those are the three I remember most, they were the strongest. And they wanted my background. And I told them I did a lot of volunteer work. Oh, also, I wrote a column, newspaper column, and I wrote it because my Nisei friends, all they talked about was getting a car, how much it cost, I mean, consumerism just really involved them, and I didn't like it. I wanted to talk about other things. So I thought with a social column, I could write about social events, and then every now and then put something in that I really want to talk about. So I did that.

KU: In what publication was that?

EO: Kashu Mainichi. And I knew the publisher, he was very nice. He liked it so much he started paying me. [Laughs]

KU: And when did you start this column?

EO: "On the Town." "On the Town with Elsie Uyematsu." That came out once a week.

KU: Do you remember what year it started and how long you did that?

EO: Oh, gosh. Let's see, I started work at the center in '68. Maybe around '60, 1960? 1959 through 1960, around there.

KU: And how long did your column run for, how many years?

EO: Oh, I think over a year, not much more. I got tired of doing it. But I saved my columns while I was at the center, Bruce (Iwasaki) and Steve Tatsukawa?

KU: Bruce Iwasaki?

EO: Iwasaki. Bruce Iwasaki and Steve, they wanted to start a column, so they asked to see mine. So the one I was most proud of, I let them have it. Now I don't have it. [Laughs]

KU: Do you remember what that was about?

EO: I'm not sure, but it was more about human values. Most of my columns were about who was there, you know, the social column type, but I did mention other things.

KU: In terms of human values, what was important at that time for you to write about, that you felt you wanted to write about?

EO: I don't remember.

KU: That's okay.

EO: But it was not what I usually wrote, it's what I wanted to write. [Laughs]

KU: So you were talking about the interview that you went through when, Laura Ho and Denorah Gill, you were being interviewed for the job.

EO: Yeah. And I told them about my service background as a club woman, and then I told him about my writing, my column. And I told them about my reading, and I (read) Diary of Malcolm X. I think that's what did it. So that was it.

KU: And what brought you to the Diary of Malcolm X?

EO: A lot of people were reading it, that's why I wanted to read it.

KU: And what did you learn that was meaningful to you at the time about his life?

EO: Well, for one thing, I didn't realize what the black people had to go through. It was an eye opener in that sense. That's all I can say about it.

KU: So you got the job, and how did you feel about that?

EO: Oh, I was really happy. Because with my background, I wouldn't even qualify for a clerk typist job. [Laughs] So it really just meant the world to me. And it meant that I had a living wage, and I had the man I loved, that was it. So the next twenty years were very happy.

KU: And how was it for you as a Nisei having gone through what you had gone through and lived the life you lived, to come to a campus and come to a program, a brand new program, the Asian American Studies Center, that was birthed out of the Civil Rights Movement? Because a lot of Nisei had tended to be a little more conservative.

EO: Yeah, my boyfriend was put off by it; he didn't understand it. It was coming, that's all. It was bound to happen, I think. History, yeah.

KU: In what way?

EO: People were starting to speak out. They were getting tired of the way things were. Finding our voice.

KU: Your daughters both played a big role in that.

EO: What?

KU: Your daughters, Amy and Mary played a big role in that.

EO: Oh, thank you. I'm proud of them.

KU: Did you talk a lot about politics with them at the time?

EO: I don't remember. Their father was very well educated, and it was interesting to hear his views on a lot of stuff. Of course, his views and their views are different, but it was good.

[Interruption]

EO: I want to tell you something, too, about my husband.

KU: Which one?

EO: My first one. Because my second one was not educated, he went to high school and that was it. But my first husband, he went to the University of Chicago, and he had to compete with boys who went to special boy's schools. Anyway, when I first started working at the center, Philip and Yuji were curious about my husband, so they invited us up for dinner. And after dinner, the three of them, I don't know they got to talking. And they were checking him out, I guess. Then when we got home, I asked him how it went, you know what he called them? He says, "Those two are intellectual snobs." [Laughs] Intellectual snobs. They were trying to trip him up on something, I think. That's crazy.

KU: So this was before, while you were still married, of course?

EO: Yes, while we were still married.

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 2018 Densho. All Rights Reserved.