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TI: So what year did you graduate from high school?

YM: 1939.

TI: Okay, 1939. And after you graduated from high school, what did you do?

YM: Then I went to San Diego State to take pre-engineering.

TI: And why did you go pre-engineering? You mentioned earlier that, you said you were...

YM: Well, I just took engineering because all my friends were going in engineering. I had no idea what engineering was all about, but it was just something to take. Anyway, I'm glad I did.

TI: Going back, you said your friends were taking engineering, too. At that point, who were your friends? Were they Caucasian, were they Japanese?

YM: Mainly Japanese, Niseis.

TI: So I'm curious. A lot of Niseis, before the war, they would graduate with these college degrees like engineering, but sometimes it'd be hard for them to get a job.

YM: Oh, yes.

TI: Was that the same in San Diego?

YM: Oh, yes, yes. I think it was sort of a given that you wouldn't be able to get a job in engineering. You might go to medical school or dental school and be able to become a doctor or dentist, but engineering, those jobs were not available at that time.

TI: So in general, if a Japanese got an engineering degree before the war, what kind of work would they do?

YM: Well, you'd come back home and work in a store, fruit stand, or work in the farm or something like that. I remember up in Seattle, one of the well-known engineers called Minoru Yamasaki, I understand he had to go to Alaska to the canneries, 'cause he couldn't get a job as an architect.

TI: Yeah, there are quite a few stories that I've heard about getting engineering degrees and then working in Seattle like at the Pike Place Market as a peddler of some type. And so I'm curious, so why would a Nisei go into engineering knowing that there weren't that many job opportunities?

YM: It's just that our parents wanted us to go to college and get a college education. Maybe they were more far-sighted then we thought at the time. Anyway, it was a good thing, as it turned out.

TI: Okay, so you choose pre-engineering at San Diego State, and then what happened after that?

YM: Then I transferred to UC Berkeley, and I went there in 1941, fall of 1941. And, of course, that was the fateful year war broke out in, later, December of that year. And I came home for Christmas vacation and I think my folks insisted I go back to school for the spring semester.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright ©2009 Densho and the Twin Cities JACL. All Rights Reserved.