Densho Digital Archive - Shig Kaseguma Interview (denshovh-kshig-01-0020)

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RP: So what was it like, what was your feeling heading for Cincinnati and establishing, re-establishing your college education?

SK: Yeah, it was, when we first got there, the Friends Society, you know, the Quakers.

RP: The Quakers.

SK: They had a hostel there. And I was surprised at how many Japanese men were there, men and women. I was telling my wife the other day, I said, "I was surprised that there were so many there." But my buddy and I, the four of us that went together, we worked at the Commons at the University of Cincinnati. And the younger guy that I was with, he, of course he was a preacher's son, but he had a nice easy job. He was a soda jerk in the Commons, Cincinnati Commons. Whereas these men had to fed three meals a day, and they occupied the whole hall they had upstairs, and the kitchen. And my job was to get up at five in the morning, and I get down there and get it all ready for the men to come, set it up. Not cooking, but set up all the outside things, with about three other people. And then when they ate and left, we had to clean up all the mess, clean the floor, mop the floor every day, just about. 'Cause that's the army tradition, you gotta keep it clean. And I did that for about a year until I got called.

RP: Oh, while you were going to school you did that.

SK: Yeah, but I got up five, then I took a full load of classes. But they allowed me to get out, well, noontime, it's lunch time anyway. And I would breakfast, serve breakfast, then I go to class. Come back and do things for the lunch. Come back after go to school, then I stay for, get ready for dinner. And then after I cleaned it all up, then I go back home, I study. Start the same thing over next morning. Five in the morning, I gotta get down there.

RP: So this was the hostel that you were working at.

SK: No, it's a school. University of Cincinnati.

RP: Oh, it was the school. Okay. It was like a dormitory?

SK: No, yeah. I stayed in a fraternity house in the beginning, across the street, not a block away. But my buddy and I decided that wasn't living, you know, living with all the guys upstairs. So we rented a place that was above a, right around the corner. There was a drugstore, they had two apartments upstairs, so he and I rented one place, 'cause we were getting money then. We were earning our keep. So, working eight hours a day. And he and I took that room. There was another room that was behind us, some married couple came there. But it was a nice place. Just one room with a, you had the common bathroom.

RP: How were you accepted by the community there?

SK: Oh, very well. In fact, the restaurants around there.

RP: Everybody served you.

SK: All the students (...) treated me just like any other student, all the classes I went to. We didn't think how it was going to be, but it was pretty good. I wouldn't have mind if I stayed there another year, anyway.