<Begin Segment 9>

NW: Do you remember the day that you arrived? Do you remember kind of your first impressions of the place?

MW: Well, as I say, I went to a home first, and I had to take care of a baby, and I had never taken care of a baby before. You had to get up at, like, six o'clock in the morning, when they first get up. That was the reason I was hired, I think, so that I could take care of the baby and they could sleep. No, actually, it was a professor's family. I think that was the only child, I can't remember. I was only there a few days until I got into the living center.

NW: And one thing I forgot to ask, what was your parents' reaction when you told them that you were leaving?

MW: Oh, well, they wanted me to continue education. I mean, they were highly supportive. I remember had a woman, people had sewing machines sometimes in the camp. And this was, I've heard of people who even had bought things. I don't know how it got there, but anyway, she had somebody make clothing for me to go to school, go out.

NW: Farewell gift.

MW: Very caring family. And then I went to my cousin's place, and I was pressing this taffeta blouse, and I burned it, brand new blouse. [Laughs] Those are the things you remember. My mother had this specially made, and here I ruined it.

NW: I suppose it's the thought that counts. [Laughs]

MW: So somehow we managed to get through.

NW: So you get to Syracuse, you're living, sort of, in this shared home. And you had mentioned that there were other Japanese American students there. So were these other students who had left from the camps?

MW: Yes. I don't remember exactly which ones. And I remember a couple of, I think I mentioned that a couple of men who were in other fields, not nursing, chemistry. Well, my future husband was in journalism or something like that.

NW: And he was also living in this same home?

MW: No, no, no. I mean, I don't know where he was living. These were all people... there was a married couple, I remember, Kitazawas. And then there was another young Japanese American man studying engineering, I think. And there might have been another that I didn't know, and then there were these nursing students.

NW: So there was sort of this community of Japanese American students?

MW: Oh, we didn't get together or anything, we didn't do anything.

NW: You were just aware of each other?

MW: Oh, yeah, we were aware that, I don't remember that... I mean, we weren't like, oh, we're alike, we'll just get together kind of thing. There was one that I was more close to, a couple more nursing students than the others.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2018 Densho. All Rights Reserved.