<Begin Segment 23>

TI: Now, your selection to go to nursing school, why nursing school?

TW: I guess probably because I was assured of a job when I got out. Teaching or nursing, that was about it.

TI: Okay. So this was something that your father supported? He thought you going to nursing school was a good idea?

TW: Well, (yes). They were very supportive. Grandma... because in the beginning, I was staying at home. Grandma and Dad were there, so I had a home there for a while before I went into the dorm, which was not until the third, fourth, fifth year of nursing.

TI: You mentioned you graduated, and you said you worked as a nurse for half a year. And then what happened?

TW: And then that's when Pan American came to the Olympic Hotel to interview Nisei girls that can speak (Japanese). So I went down to be interviewed, and they said I was hired except I had to pass the language part. So they sent me to Mr. Takahashi. His name, he had changed his name from Mr. Takahashi to Mr. Highbridge.

TI: So a translation...

TW: Literal translation. And he quizzed me on my Japanese and he said that I was acceptable for Japanese speaking. But I don't know if I was that good because once we got hired, I became good friends with Eunice Kubota, and she and I had to take lessons with a special Japanese man who was assigned to Eunice and I because our Japanese was so poor. [Laughs]

TI: That's a good story. But then you told me another good story. I want you to share how your father found out that you were...

TW: Oh, did I mention that?

TI: You mentioned that. It's a great story, so I want you to tell this story. So you talked about going to the Olympic Hotel to interview for this... and before we go there, so the terminology, "stewardess" versus "flight attendant," which one do you use?

TW: I think, at the time, "stewardess" was used. And then after that, people were called "flight attendants" versus "stewardesses," but we were called stewardesses.

TI: Okay, so back then they called it stewardess. So you were, back then, applying for a position for stewardess. So tell the story of how your father found out.

TW: Oh, okay. Because it was a new thing, they had televised it. And so my dad always watched the news at six o'clock. On the very end of that, they showed me. And my dad looked at me and said, "Was that you?" I said, "(Yes), Dad." I said, "I went to go interview." Twenty-five years old and I have to ask permission from my dad if I can go. And he said, "(Yes), you can go if you promise to keep up on your nursing." And I'd gone to school and all that. "If you keep up on your nursing, you can go." So there it was.

TI: And do you have a sense that he was concerned about it at all, or was he excited about you being a stewardess? What was his reaction?

TW: I was very excited. I'd never been to Honolulu. And so, oh my god, getting to Honolulu for the first time is just paradise. Beautiful weather and all those familiar faces, Oriental faces. I just really love Hawaii, it was a good time for me and a wonderful place and wonderful friends.

TI: That's good.

<End Segment 23> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.