<Begin Segment 9>

AI: Well, let me back up a little bit in time before we get too far into the dressmaking, and just finish up about your high school years. Because you've been saying about how your parents sat you down and talked to you about your future, and about the idea of going into dressmaking. And then you were finishing up high school. And, can you tell me about your senior year and your graduation?

KM: Oh, senior year, uh-huh. Okay, well, at the, when we have, we became senior, at the, toward the end, all the class votes for who wants to be the class speaker. And then, so my name was up for one of 'em. And, in fact, I got, the students voted for me. But I don't know about the rules those days but they presented this to the PTA. And they said that in all the history of Narbonne High School, they said they never had an Oriental valedictorian. So they said that this won't do. And so my next people, the next girl got it. And then she didn't want it. She said, "This is not fair." She said, "She should" -- I should have it. But the majority ruled. And so the next thing was that I said, "I'm gonna get my CSF." So I really worked and kinda crammed for my, and I got my CSF. And I became the first Japanese in that high school (and in my graduating class) to become a CSF. But kinda, after that, subsequently, there's a lot of, that got CSF. But they had a big plaque, you know, and then my name was on there.

AI: What does CSF stand for?

KM: Oh, California Federation Scholarship.

AI: Oh. And so even though rightly...

KM: It has to be an average of, average "A" for the four quarters.

AI: Oh, and even though you had the highest grades, and you should've been the valedictorian...

KM: Yeah.

AI: ...you were not?

KM: Yeah. And then see, I got a lot of points toward my athletic ability too. But it just didn't...[Laughs] But that's what you call, what I now call prejudice. But at that time, I was disappointed, but I wasn't bitter or anything.

AI: Were you surprised?

KM: No. But, like my mother and dad always said, "Don't be surprised if they don't select you, because of being Japanese. Just accept it." And so I just accepted it. Shikata ga nai, you know -- [Laughs] -- as the Japanese say.

AI: Tell me about, shikata ga nai.

KM: Shikata ga nai. There's no way, well what can you do? That's actually, so we just have to accept it the best we can.

AI: And at that time, within yourself, did you feel American, or Japanese, both?

KM: Well, I always felt I was neither. I felt like I didn't have any, really. But then, toward the high school and so forth that I stayed, I was longer here, I felt like I'm an American. But I wasn't a pure American because I was half Japanese. [Laughs] I mean I never did feel one way or the other. I just felt like I was kinda mixed. But my Japanese schoolteacher taught us that, "You Niseis, the one that was born in America, you're very fortunate. You have the pride of Japan being born of blood in Japan, Japanese blood, then you have American citizen, and you're educated here, and you have both. And so, you're the best of all the humans. So be proud." And so he, each Japanese school had a school song. And then he wrote a school song, and he told us what it meant, and he told us to be proud and always think of this, and then never bring shame. Then don't, be proud that you have dual citizenship. Because my, when the war broke out, I had to cut my citizenship from Japan. 'Cause it didn't matter, 'cause I'm a girl, so I don't have to go to the army. But like my brother, it meant that he was called, that he would have been called.

AI: Right, right.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 1999 Densho. All Rights Reserved.