<Begin Segment 23>

DG: Now, you did some things that even white people don't do, much less Japanese people.

NS: It didn't make any difference. It was just something I wanted to do, and as my mother said, "You could do (it), so you might as well." And with her encouragement and her baby-sitting, I was able to do these things. She said, "Not everybody could do it," and as long as she was there to take care of the children, why, "You go ahead and do these things."

DG: Was there any thought about proving yourself at all?

NS: No. I just enjoyed doing it and so I was doing it.

DG: But most Japanese would worry about sticking out so much, let's put it that way.

NS: I think their worry is just unfounded and quite selfish, I think. I never thought of anything like that. I just thought of it as a job to do and did what I could.

DG: But most people would worry about what people were saying.

NS: I never worried about that. [Laughs] I think that people say what they want to say anyway, so what difference does it make even if you don't agree with what they're saying. So it never really bothered me. I just went on and did what I wanted to do and could do.

DG: The term they use now is "breaking the glass ceiling."

NS: Oh.

DG: Was there any restrictions because you were a minority?

NS: I don't think so. I think that they -- most of the people accepted me as I am, and as long as I could do the job that I was assigned to do that that was sufficient.

DG: Was there some tokenism involved?

NS: No, but there was one instance when I felt very much, very much, what, voted against, but -- so I kind of left the meeting at that point.

DG: Where was this?

NS: I won't tell you. [Laughs]

DG: So how did you deal with it?

NS: That was just the one instance when I felt badly, and I just left the meeting.

DG: And what did you do after the meeting?

NS: I didn't go anymore. [Laughs]

<End Segment 23> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.