<Begin Segment 18>

TI: So going on to Ontario High School, you mentioned you took a test. So at this point, what grade were you in?

TH: I was a junior. (...) I took (the test) because I just wanted to get out of Ontario, and I passed.

TI: And so you took this test, as a junior you passed, so what did that mean? What could you do?

TH: Oh, we'd get to go to school in Boise. I never paid... I never even thought of it then, I just kept going to school, but I didn't pay any tuition, so I guess it was kind of like a... I think what they wanted to do was people out in the working world.

TI: Well, so this test you took at Ontario High School, could any student take that test?

TH: Uh-huh.

TI: And this was a test, if you passed, would sort of accelerate you into, to go to...

TH: Skip senior year.

TI: And go to Boise State.

TH: Right. And I don't know if any others took the test. Maybe they wanted to continue going to school in Ontario, probably. I just wanted to get out.

TI: So I didn't ask this question. So it sounds like you were a pretty good student to have done this.

TH: Oh, I thought I was just average. [Laughs]

TI: Well, so when you think of your friends that you mentioned, how would they describe you?

TH: Very independent. [Laughs]

TI: And why would they say that?

TH: Because when... and Martha Umemoto was her name, she decided she'd go to Boise with me. She got so homesick she came home. I didn't think any... I said, "Why are you so homesick?" So I was able to make do with what I had to, besides, I guess. I didn't have much.

TI: And when you took the test and could go to Boise State, what did your parents think? Did they think that was a good thing?

TH: They thought it was a good thing, well, just because of the education. And they knew I didn't want to go to Ontario High School any more.

TI: And while you were doing this, what was your older sister doing?

TH: I think she had gotten married when she was about twenty-two. So she was already... I can't remember, I think that's what it was.

TI: And did she marry someone from the Ontario area?

TH: No, from Seattle.

TI: And how did she meet someone from Seattle living in Ontario?

TH: Probably at a dance or something.

TI: When you got to Boise State, so this is in Idaho, were there other Japanese at Boise State?

TH: June Oda, which I have to tell you about her. Your mother and her sister were good friends.

BY: Was Lillian her sister? Was her sister named Lillian?

TH: (...).

BY: Yeah, because my mom did have a best friend named Lillian.

TH: She lives in California. June and I were really good friends, she was going to Boise State, and she went on to Oberlin college and became a pianist. Anyway, and then there was a Jack Fuji from Oregon, related to, some way to a Dave Fukuhara. Who else? There were only about three or four of us.

TI: And where did the people, like for you, where did you stay, where did you live?

TH: I worked for my room and board at the Deanery, he was a minister at that (St. Mark Episcopal Church). We all worked for room and board, got paid a dollar a week. [Laughs]

TI: But your tuition was free and you got room and board, you had to work.

TH: Yeah, so that was fair enough. Because they didn't overwork me.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.