<Begin Segment 13>

MM: Before you joined the MIS, you finished high school?

RK: Yes.

MM: What were the last few months of high school like?

RK: Oh, we tried to make it as usual, but we had our senior prom, but it was very restricted, I think. I don't know where we held it. It wasn't in a fancy place at all, and we had to quit by a certain hour. And it was still blackout time, as I recall, so it was very restricted. And our high school annual suffered. Instead of being, in those days, they used to have a hardcover annual, our annual was produced at the school. McKinley High School is remarkable in that we had a daily newspaper called the Daily Opinion that we produced ourselves, printed ourselves in school. So we used that printing press. And our high school annual is in three parts, three slim paperback volumes. So it affected... and, of course, well, I guess the graduation ceremonies were also, were always held on the front lawn. And I guess it was always held in late afternoon, and we did have it. But what's significant about our graduation is that you see all of us besides, whatever... I guess the attire then was everybody in white. Girls in white dresses and boys in white shirts, but each one of us was carrying gas mask, which was a requirement in those days.

MM: So, you were in your graduation attire, I assume with leis and--

RK: Yeah, but underneath all, we have this, you can see this strap with this big bulky gas mask. [Laughs]

MM: Wow.

RK: It was required in those days that we all carry the gas masks. In fact, in school we had, periodically, we had to test our gas masks, so we had to run through a hut which was full of tear gas. And if you came out crying, that means your gas mask was leaking. [Laughs]

MM: Wow, so you actually ran through a --

RK: Oh, yeah.

MM: -- hut with tear gas? As a graduating senior, what did you want to be? What did you want to do with your life?

RK: Well, at that time, I wanted to be a lawyer. When I went to Tufts college, of course, it's in Boston, so I visited Harvard, and I said, "That's where I want to go to law school." And I've got a picture of my standing before, standing in the law school courtyard, and standing by, I think they had a statue of Harvard, the founder. And anyway, I thought I'd become a lawyer.

MM: What had been your grade point average at that time?

RK: Oh, I don't know. I did quite well in school.

MM: High school. 'A's' and 'B's'?

RK: Yes, mainly.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2004 Japanese American National Museum. All Rights Reserved.