<Begin Segment 16>

BY: And Frances, what did you do in Walla Walla?

FN: What did I do?

BY: Yeah, what did you do?

FN: I went to school, and then when I graduated, well, in my senior year, I was taking commercial classes. And before the school year was over, I was asked by the commercial teacher to come and go with her. So I went, ended up at the superintendent of school's office. So he talked to me and pretty soon he says, "Well, you got the job." And I didn't know what they're talking about because I was still a senior, and they needed a secretary so I became his secretary. So then that was before graduation, but I was able to graduate with the class, not take my senior exams, and still participate in everything the seniors did, going on Senior Sneaks and everything. So that was a plus for me for not having to take the test or anything. So that was my experience.

BY: So what was it like when you first started school in (College Place)? So here you were, a sixth grader, coming from camp, coming to a new place, new school. What was that like for you?

FN: Well, I remember my friends telling me that they were sent to the principal's office, two of my friends. And they were told that a Japanese girl was going to enter school, and, "Please take care of her so that no harm would come to her, since she's Japanese." And so when I entered school, I didn't know that that happened, that these two students just sort of took over and protected me and we're still friends forever. And so I recently lost her through death in December.

BY: And who was this?

FN: I mean in October. That was Beth Ann Brinker Dilts, and the other one was Mary Lou Saxby, and I can't remember her last name, but Mary Lou's husband, she lost her husband through an airplane crash.

BY: So it sounds like they were white, right, these two friends?

FN: Yes.

BY: Did you have... I mean, did you have your classmates at College Place, were they mostly white or were there other Japanese Americans?

FN: Yes. I was the only minority going to the College Place school.

BY: And how was that for you?

FN: It was fine, and so this was sixth and seventh grade. And in the eighth grade, my friend, Mary Lou, she is Adventist, so she went to an Adventist school. And so I kept friends with... she's still my friend, but not as much as Beth Ann was a friend to me, all through high school, too.

BY: And were there many other Japanese American families in Walla Walla at that time?

FN: I think there were, like the Shinbos and Hamadas, Tachibanas, probably about five Japanese families, six, seven.

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.