<Begin Segment 15>

DG: Now, let's define a little bit. When you went to the University of Washington, you mentioned that you were only one of four people?

NS: Four in my class.

DG: In your class.

NS: But there were about twenty or twenty-five or so Japanese women.

DG: The four in your class, who were they?

NS: Billie and Yurino, Yurino Takayoshi, and Billie (Tashiro) and Iku Ariizumi, and then myself. Is that four?

DG: And so this was fairly early when there were Japanese at the university.

NS: Yes, uh-huh.

DG: You said that you were not the first ones, but...

NS: No. There was Kikue Otani; Masuda that was ahead; and Kimi Furiya Konzo ahead and her sister, the Furiya sisters; and Sakae Nakamura and Yuki Fuji, they were ahead of me. So there were...

DG: So did you socialize together with this group?

NS: Yes. Well, we had a Fuyokai and we had dances and we invited mostly the college boys and had, had our dances either -- quite often we had them in the Japanese consuls' homes and...

[Interruption]

DG: Okay. So, we're still on June the 3rd. This is Wednesday and we took a break and went to lunch. We took a lunch break here and you're living at this Park Shore Apartments that's just gorgeous.

NS: Retirement home.

DG: Retirement home.

NS: Uh-huh. It's under the sponsorship of the Presbyterian ministries, which is... I didn't go to the Methodist one because it was in Des Moines and too far to commute to some of the activities that I was in. And when I moved here I was still active with the Women's University Club and did things; play bridge there every Monday.

DG: So you've been here about fourteen years?

NS: Yes, uh-huh. Time flies.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.