Densho Digital Archive
Manzanar National Historic Site Collection
Title: George Kikuta Interview
Narrator: George Kikuta
Interviewer: Richard Potashin
Location: Los Angeles, California
Date: July 18, 2008
Densho ID: denshovh-kgeorge_2-01-0011

<Begin Segment 11>

RP: So you made a switch in your academic career. You said you got into accounting or business?

GK: Yes. I switched my major from engineering to business administration with a concentration in accounting. So after graduation, I was not so aspiring, so I went to look for any kind of job, and I wound up in the City of Los Angeles, government job.

RP: A government job?

GK: Yeah.

RP: Just like us.

GK: Accounting section. And one of my supervisors was studying to be a CPA, and I found out, oh, there's such a profession called CPA, Certified Public Accountant. So I said, "Maybe I'll study and try to take the exam, I'll pass the exam in two years." So I quit and moved into public accounting. But back then, it's interesting, it was in the late '60, early '70, accounting was a pure WASP profession. And minorities were not well-accepted. Back then, we had entities called the Big 8 accounting firms, large multi-national accounting firms called the Big 8. And they were not taking too many Asians, not too many Hispanic. Even, they're not accepting Jewish people. So there were a lot of good Jewish CPAs, they formed their own firms, and throughout the United States, they have large Jewish-owned CPA firms. Recently, many were merged into Big 8. Now, Big 8 became Big 4. Among themselves, they merged. So kind of interesting that even female CPA candidates were not accepted back then in the early '60s, mid-'60s, I should say.

RP: So you were one of the first, first Asians to enter that field?

GK: Yeah, there were quite a few Niseis and Sanseis, CPAs around. But I think when I was, when I passed the exam and became a CPA, I think only a handful of bilingual Japanese CPAs around. So I, I was fortunate to be a bilingual. I guess I'm, among my siblings, I think I was fortunate ones for being raised in Japan and came back here, and maintained bilingual skill. But my other brothers were not that fortunate. They had to go through a lot of tough times.

RP: Right, so that bilingual ability became an asset in your situation. Before that time, was your ethnicity an obstacle? You mentioned accounting, but were there other situations where you weren't accepted or you were excluded because of your ethnicity? One, being Japanese American, but also, two, being Kibei.

GK: Right.

RP: There's always been this historic schism between the Nisei and the Kibei.

GK: I never felt, you know, discrimination. I just accepted whatever was given. I guess it's a typical Japanese attitude, but when you compare with a white American, I'm sure I was given third or fourth ranked opportunities. So, but still, U.S., if you try hard, keep climbing, you get, you get rewards. That's pretty good.

RP: I think that the time that you came back here was advantageous. If you had stayed in this country and gone, gone ahead and gone through your academics and professional experience, there were Niseis who were PhDs and working in fruit stands, you probably heard those stories.

GK: Right.

RP: Most of the professions were shutting doors to anyone of Japanese...

GK: You know, most, most of the professions had rules or law against non-citizens. Like even CPAs and attorneys, unless you're a citizen, you're not allowed to become a CPA. Plus, CPA have experience requirement, and nobody gave you a job. So even if you passed the exam, you're not certified because you cannot obtain required experience. So like my wife's uncle was the first Japanese dentist. He graduated from USC, and dentists, I think, it's easier because you, once, after you graduate, you don't really require experience. You could start your practice right away. But he had to go through a tough time to start his own practice. He only concentrated on Japanese community.

RP: And then, yeah, depending on the language issue, too. I assume that there also were, like you mentioned, exclusionary kind of laws that developed in these organizations in corporations, but also the fact that there might have been quotas as well, too? You know, "We'll hire one or two Nikkeis or two Jews," or that kind of thing. I mean, those quotas were...

GK: You know, I think those quotas came way after my, my early days. I think they never had quotas before. Because those quotas are after Martin Luther King and Kennedy time, way after.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.