<Begin Segment 24>

DG: Okay, there is some more organizations here: The Japanese American Citizens League?

NS: Yes. I was active in that for a while. And I went to San Francisco to some meetings and I enjoyed my association with them, for a while, anyway.

DG: What do you think was the most important part of what they were doing?

NS: I think -- I'm not sure. I think they were encouraging people to resettle and to maybe educate the community as to what was available and encouraging the people in their reactivity into the norm of things.

DG: "AAUW"?

NS: The AAUW, I enjoyed because it was an association with a lot of my friends who were members of AAUW.

DG: And that stands for?

NS: "American Association of University Women." And having gone to the university, I had a good many friends in the organization.

DG: That's a real prestigious organization.

NS: What?

DG: That's a prestigious organization.

NS: It's a good organization. I met some people who were...

DG: But you can't just join.

NS: No, you have to be, you have to have graduated the university.

DG: And be recommended by someone.

NS: I suppose.

DG: There were no Japanese, other than yourself?

NS: Not when I joined.

DG: I don't think there's a lot of Japanese even now or lately.

NS: Uh-huh. Well, I don't think Japanese people, as a whole, join organizations.

DG: Okay.

NS: Do you? You find that a lot of them don't, that they stay with their own Japanese groups. They feel more...

DG: Why do they do that?

NS: I don't know why. I suppose they feel more comfortable with their Japanese friends rather than to try to make new friends. And making new friends, of course, is a different...

DG: But you didn't feel that way.

NS: I never did, so it never bothered me to go into a new situation.

DG: Did you ever feel lonesome?

NS: Oh, I suppose there were times when I was, but it doesn't last forever. [Laughs] It just means a matter of going out and making new friends.

<End Segment 24> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.