<Begin Segment 13>

TI: And how was it for dating Caucasians from St. Louis? Was that, were they about the same as the West Coast, or did you see a difference in terms of culture or their views?

YM: Well, we didn't have much interaction with Caucasians on the West Coast. I had a Caucasian friend that I used to do things with, but he was the only one. So it's kind of hard to compare between the West Coast and the Midwest. But they were very nice to us, you know. Gives you a little different perspective after living on the West Coast, you know, to have that experience.

TI: Well, that's why I'm curious. So it seemed like, in terms of race issues dealing with Japanese Americans, it was more... what's the right word? Loose or easier for Japanese Americans in places like St. Louis than it was on the West Coast, like San Diego.

YM: Oh, definitely. Definitely, yes, it's easier. We had the son of... his name was Obata, he was the professor of art at the University of California, Berkeley. And his son, he had two sons, and one of the sons, Kimio, is the one that taught us how to fence while we were in camp. The younger one, Gyo was at the university. Well, the whole family moved to St. Louis, they were living there. And Gyo attended the school of architecture at Washington University. And he has a firm called HOK, Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum, which is, for a while it was the largest architectural firm in the United States. They built one, their sports division built most of the big stadiums, Pac Bell and Camden Park and all these baseball and football stadiums. And he did a lot of very good work. Dallas-Fort Worth Airport... biggest architectural firm in the world, I think.

TI: So he was a classmate of yours at Washington University?

YM: He was about a year younger than me, so I didn't have much to do with him, although he invited us over to his home for dinner. Anyway, he was very successful. Another fellow, George Matsumoto, you'll see his picture in there, he was an architect, too, and he did very well. He did some work while he was a professor at North Carolina State and then he became a professor at University of California Berkeley and he had his own practice in San Francisco. I see him quite often, we're very good friends.

TI: So this is interesting. So when you think of these individuals who went to Washington University who then became very successful, so I'm thinking, well, so either there's something special about Washington University, or there was something very special about the group that went to Washington University. Which one do you think? Was it very, kind of, selected...

YM: Well, I think it's the group. Gary claims that the ones that went out early, they selected the very best students. That's what he claims, although I don't consider myself in that class. But they were very good students. One of the other... the gal in there that we graduated from, she, I didn't know her at Washington University, her name was Gladys Ishida at that time. And then I met her here, Gladys Stone, she had married a professor of social studies. And she herself became a chairman of the social studies department at the University of Wisconsin here. And another gal, she was a lawyer, I think she became a prominent lawyer.

TI: So it really was kind of at that, people going through college at that point, amongst the Niseis, kind of the best and brightest of that group.

YM: That's what they claim, yeah.

TI: And I should mention, the book you're mentioning is Storied Lives by Gary Okihiro, where he writes about the Nisei students who were kind of... what's the right word? They were kind of resettled into these different universities off the West Coast.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright ©2009 Densho and the Twin Cities JACL. All Rights Reserved.