<Begin Segment 7>

TI: Well, how about as a student in school? I mean, how were you in school?

NA: Oh, I was a bookworm, so I got straight "A's." And then from my California education in high school, I, they call it the California Scholarship Federation, I had that stamped on my diploma, that I was a member of the California Scholarship Federation.

TI: And is that based on your grade point average? If you have a certain grade point average, you get that? Or how do you get that stamp?

NA: How did I, how did I get the...

TI: Yeah, what qualified you for that stamp?

NA: Oh, just excelling in... excelling in all the classes, and that included physical education. And in order to get an "A" in physical education, I had to go out for football, basketball, track, and in my senior year, I went out for tennis. So there was a requirement, and that was the only way I could get an "A" in physical education. And the rest, like math, history, chemistry, and oh, Future Farmers. And I didn't go into language, but everything I studied in high school, I majored in it. Three years was the major, so, and I got "A's," so they -- oh, and then I became the, in my junior year, I became the class treasurer.

TI: Was it common for Japanese American students to be class officers and getting good grades in your school?

NA: It was pretty hard.

TI: No, was it common, though, for other Nisei? Were other Niseis also, like, class, like class officers and things like that? I'm trying to get a sense of how many other Niseis were in your, in your high school. Were there very many?

NA: Oh, I think each class had about ten Niseis out of a hundred, so that would be ten percent. Ten percent were Japanese Americans. And Japanese Americans pretty well excelled in school, girls and boys. And, let's see, oh, and I was the school photographer for three years. So the yearbook... so that's extracurricular, it didn't count toward my scholarship, but at least, at least I took pictures. (Narr. note: No other Nisei became class officer.)

TI: And so did you, what year did you graduate from high school?

NA: 1941, June of 1941, the year Japan bombed Pearl Harbor.

TI: Right. And before we get there, so when you graduated from high school, were you thinking you would go to college?

NA: Yes. My dad really wanted me to go to college.

TI: And what, what college do you think you would have gone to if you had...

NA: Oh, I had California Polytechnic College in mind. One of my friend, well, he was a Caucasian, and he went there, and I thought, "Wow, that's a good place to go."

TI: And where's, where's this located, Cal Polytechnic?

NA: San Luis Obispo, California.

TI: So did you enroll in Cal Polytech? Did you enroll in that college?

NA: Yes, I enrolled.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright ©2008 Densho and the Topaz Museum. All Rights Reserved.