<Begin Segment 13>

MA: And coming back to Minneapolis, you got involved with the Y.

MY: Uh-huh.

MA: So what types of things did you do? You mentioned you organized...

MY: Y Teen groups, actually.

MA: Y Teen groups? And who were these teens that you worked with?

MY: These were all high school, I don't know what age group, if it was all seniors. It was the upper grades of high school. The girls could join this Y Teen Club. It was kind of like a social group, but we did all kinds of things. And we had, there were about four of us group workers that had assigned to different schools. So I had two schools that I went out to every day and worked with the girls.

MA: And were these, like, public schools in Minneapolis?

MY: Yeah, they were all public schools.

MA: And what were the races of, what was the racial sort of breakdown of the students you worked with? Were they some Japanese, some...

MY: They were all Caucasian.

MA: All Caucasian?

MY: Uh-huh. I don't remember... except later years, I remember a few Sanseis that were in one of the schools that I started working. Depended on the location, mainly.

MA: And then where were you living when you moved back to Minneapolis? Did you find a place to live?

MY: In north Minneapolis, we looked for a house out in... near one of the schools, which was close to a suburb. And there, we, the realtor that my father had contacted to look at homes, we ran into discrimination as far as housing. Because the realtor said he had to check with a neighbor to see if we could live next to them. And so he went over and talked to the neighbor and they didn't want us. I don't know what the exchange was as far as conversation, but I said, "Well, we don't want to move here anyway if that's their attitude." So we kept looking and found one in north Minneapolis which was a predominately Jewish community at that time. And blacks were moving in. So we found a house there close to a streetcar line so we could get to work and back.

MA: Do you think because it was a Jewish community they maybe have been more accepting of you?

MY: I think so. Any minority, I think, you know, tend to take care of each other. So I lived there until my sister and I, after our father went back to Japan, he left it up to my sister and I and we... can't remember if I -- no, I think we sold it and then I moved into an apartment with some of the girls from the Y until I got married and moved on.

MA: Did your father move back to Japan permanently?

MY: Yes. I think that was his goal all along. He wanted to see that his family was taken care of, and I guess he felt the time was then and he could go back. His family was all, all his brothers and sisters were still living, so he wanted to go back and see them. That was the last we saw of him.

MA: And you mentioned that you would organize social activities through the Y for a lot of the, like, USO activities. It seems like the Y must have been kind of a social hub for the Niseis.

MY: It was. It was a gathering place. From there, we'd go on hayrides and all kinds of activities. And the boys from the, from Fort Snelling would come in. So I think a lot of 'em met their husbands that way, like I did.

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