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BN: And then you said your sister had kind of already started Immaculate Heart Before you moved, and then the family moved before you started?

KM: No. When I graduated from Maryknoll, that's when they looked for housing and we moved in.

BN: And then did you go to the same school, then?

KM: Yes. So I went to Immaculate Heart. Like my sister, we kind of followed each other. So I went to Immaculate Heart and she had already been there. Again, had big personality, outgoing, and she never seemed to be, lack confidence. So for her, being in an all-white, mostly all-white environment, it phased her, but I never, she never shared that, and she was very popular, because she was not shy. And she would do things that were a little outlandish. She had an idiosyncrasy of falling down when a loud noise happened or screaming, loud noise just scared her. So she'd either scream or fall down, and no inhibitions. It would always be like, I would be like, can we not react? If a pigeon would poop on her shoulder when we were walking, it'd be like... me, I would be like, okay, let me just wipe that away quietly so nobody saw that. She's, like, screaming out loud, so everybody looks and sees this poop, it's like, "Why would you want to do that?" But that was how she was. My mother would say, "Watch out for your sister because she might get into some trouble."

BN: And then so now you're in, I mean, before Maryknoll's kind of a Japanese environment, and now you're in a distinct minority, I gather.

KM: Yes. And there were about three of us from Maryknoll that went to Immaculate Heart. But it's so funny because, I don't know, I guess I wasn't really listening to my sister about whatever she was going through, even though we were very close. But I remember my mind telling myself when I got there, and I could see the environment, I said, "Okay, I cannot stick around with the Japanese friends that I came with. In order to succeed, I've got to get away, I've got to fit in, I've got to be like everybody else here, and not be any of that, disassociate," so that's what I did, that was my goal. Do everything that was, whatever was going in, join all the clubs, try to be, get elected to section president, whatever, this kind of stuff. You know, I worked at it, and I succeeded for a time. And I think in my senior year, it was like, "Why am I doing this?" "What is this for?" It's not working. I'm not really fitting in, I'm not white, and I remember just sort of closing in. It's like, "I don't want to do any of this." And I almost feel like that senior year, I was kind of in a different zone, like the solitary zone, I don't know. I mean, I'm sure I was mixing with people and doing whatever I had to do, but I would go up to a college and take a class, or go to their film screenings and just do stuff on my own. And it's funny, because Alan Nishio talks about this film, Japanese film called Ikiru, and I saw that film when I was a senior in high school, 1966, and I remember the impression. And Sister Corita was the one that was leading these discussions on the film, and here I am, a lone high school student in this group. It was kind of like, all these other folks there. But it really had a kind of impact on me.

BN: That was the one with the salaryman?

KM: Yes. It was the first Japanese film I think I saw. But it was very vivid. But I would go up there a lot.

BN: Did you continue to get good grades and all of that?

KM: Yes, I did. My forte was math and science, actually, but also a little bit of art. We had very good art classes at Immaculate Heart, because of Sister Corea, who was very art oriented. So Judy, my sister, went to USC first, and I was a senior, I think I was a senior. And I would see her going through all of these contortions getting ready for school, trying to dress a certain way, and I felt, wow, even borrowing clothes that were sort of special clothes for school every day, and she was trying to get into a sorority. And this is the first time I saw her really sort of not confident. And I thought, "This is nutty," and she was miserable. So of course she didn't succeed, because really, she's not that type. She's not the JA, super JA, and we weren't. We lived in a rented house in J-Flats Silver Lake, and she drove this car that was, she needed a car ride, so it was really a junk car that she had to drive to USC at that time, when the Sansei were, that went to SC, we're a certain level, right? We were not that level. So she's going to SC for, I think a semester, taking Russian, and she hangs out mostly now with the South Asian folks, like Thai and Laotian. And so I meet these folks, too, but it was a totally miserable time for her. So she left USC and went to (Immaculate Heart) for, I think, maybe another semester, was much happier there.

BN: Which college?

KM: (Immaculate Heart). It doesn't exist now, it became the film school. So that was really like, wow. I saw what she was going through. And so she goes to Berkeley, and she's very happy at Berkeley. And she's the one that, she lives in a co-op, and she gets a job, she really decided she's going to put herself through college.

BN: And this happens while you're still in high school, so you're seeing this.

KM: Yeah, so my senior, I guess that was my junior when she was at SC. So my last year, she's gone, she's up at Berkeley, we drop her off. So I'm with the family and she's not at home, and that was a very different kind of year.

BN: At that point, is there the expectation that you're going to go to college?

KM: You know what? It was never a question.

BN: Yeah, right.

KM: It never was a question that we would not go to college. Yes, we would go to college. Did my parents know anything about kinds of colleges? No. We had no advice from there. And I don't even think we had advice from our high school, frankly. I just remember looking at different literature thinking about going to a women's college in the east, thinking about oceanography because I liked the ocean. And then when I went to visit my sister Judy at Berkeley, I really, really loved it. So then I decided to apply to Berkeley and Stanford. I kind of wanted to go to Stanford, actually, that was my first choice. But to be honest, I got an interview, but I was interviewed by this old white man, an here I know nothing. I'm like this very shy person, and I don't even know what he asked me, and I don't know what I said, but I'm sure I bombed the interview. But we had to drive up there for this interview. It was not pleasant. So I had gotten a scholarship. If I had gone to Stanford, financial aid would have paid for it. But because I went to Berkeley, my parents had to pay for it. So we didn't get financial aid, it was sad. That would be the only reason.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2023 Densho. All Rights Reserved.