Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Nobu Suzuki Interview I
Narrator: Nobu Suzuki
Interviewer: Dee Goto
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: June 3, 1998
Densho ID: denshovh-snobu-01-0016

<Begin Segment 16>

DG: When we took our break, we had gotten to your finishing grad school.

NS: Yes.

DG: So...

NS: Oh, at Pacific School of Religion. At that time, there were -- oh, there wasn't too much job opportunities. There was a YWCA in San Francisco to which I went and stayed and, over the weekend when I went to work at the church, the Methodist church in San Francisco and did some Young People's work there. So I went over on Saturday and stayed over until Sunday, until after Sunday school and came back to Berkeley.

DG: Was that a natural place for people to stop by, Japanese people, to YWCA? I mean, to stay or to...

NS: They had a building and not too many places to stay as much as they had a room or two and temporary places for people to stay when there was room.

DG: So now if you were to take a trip somewhere else in the United States, would you naturally look for a Y? Is that...?

NS: I did at that time.

DG: Did other Japanese women do that?

NS: And in a way, it wasn't because it was close to the church because it wasn't, but it was in close to the community. And it was the YWCA and it was a Japanese YWCA and not the downtown one, so that they had activities on Saturday nights in which I took part; played cards or games.

DG: So would you say the Y reached out to the Japanese people more than other organizations?

NS: You mean where? In San Francisco?

DG: Anyplace.

NS: Anyplace. Yes, they did. I had more contact with them because I had been on the board here. And so when I went to camp, of course, I did get in touch with the YW people in Twin Falls because that was the, almost a natural place for us to go and visit when we did make -- we were finally able to make a trip to Twin Falls. And the camp made a car available for me so that I could drive some girls, and we would go and have a day on the town. Of course, we always liked to be shopping. There was always something to get on the outside, and also we enjoyed having lunch together in a restaurant. So then having a car made available for us made it very easy to go into town and enjoy a day on the town. And in those days I enjoyed driving, so it was -- it must have been between 30 and 40 miles (to) town.

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.