<Begin Segment 3>

SF: So you came back to Seattle in 1941, is that right?

FM: After going through the graduate program at Chicago, then there was a question of whether I might be able to find a job somewhere and, Steiner again figured in getting a position for me at the University of Chicago at the lowest level of the faculty. It was called an "associate instructorship." An instructor is something you don't hear much about any longer. But in those days why, Instructor level -- which is just below assistant professor -- was a standard position. And an associate instructor was simply someone who had not yet completed his doctorate, and was given a faculty position however. And that was...

SF: Why did you decide to return to Seattle without finishing up, as opposed to...?

FM: Well it was not uncommon to take a position without having the doctorate, however, the expectation was always that the doctorate was fairly forthcoming. And that you were close to completion. And that was the expectation in the Department of Sociology. The problem was that, once I got here, then the Pacific tension was on us, and the sense of war, pending war was very, definitely present. So that kind of affected our mentality I'm sure, we were thinking in terms of a wartime crisis, rather than being in a normal academic environment.

SF: So how did the increasing tension when you get back to Seattle, how'd that impact...?

FM: Again, I wasn't thinking so much of war as such, coming. In fact, you know Pearl Harbor was a total surprise to me, and to us, as well as to the rest of the world, I suspect. There was knowledge that Japan and the United States were in serious conflict on international issues, but the... it was not expected at that point that war would break out as suddenly as it did. However, as I say, there was a certain sense of tension because of the war in Europe, which was heating up very badly, or going very badly for the Allies. That was the major concern at that point.

SF: At that point, what did you think your academic career would focus on, in terms of content? You had this outstanding thesis...

FM: I had specialized in social psychology at the University of Chicago, and become very much interested in the Meadian social psychology that Herbert Blumer and the people at Chicago taught. I wasn't thinking so much of content in terms, any other terms then in terms of the field. Which I assumed would be social psychology and related subject matter. I had done this Japanese study, as a master's study, that is the Japanese American community study, as a master's study. But, especially because of the anti-Japanese feeling around the country at that point, I had not felt that that was a topic that would be suitable for, or I didn't think of it as the topic I would choose for a doctoral dissertation. That is, it wasn't... I suppose I felt that being Japanese, of Japanese background, that anything connected with Japan was looked upon somewhat questionably and therefore that it was not a good topic for... I didn't think of it consciously that way but I have a feeling that sub-consciously, that was the kind of orientation I had about it. Generally, I think Japanese Americans will want to hide in a sense, something of -- to some extent -- their Japanese background because of the unpopularity of the Japanese nationality at that point.

SF: When you came back, at this point, did you have much connection with the community?

FM: Not, not a great deal, not immediately. I was concerned with getting started at a university, in the academic world. And I didn't have too much time, therefore, for getting back into the community affairs. So I did not have a great deal of contact with it. However, I had been going around with my present wife, Michiko -- she and I had started going around together some years back -- and she was, she and her family lived in the community. My mother and sister lived also in the Japanese community, or this area of the Japanese community, and so I chose to live here. And in that sense, yes, I was in touch with the community.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.