<Begin Segment 7>

RP: So did you have any specific interests or academic goals during your high school education?

SK: I wanted to be in the foreign service. My senior year in high school, that was my goal. Or a foreign correspondent. And, of course those plans were dashed because of the war. But, I did major in International Relations in at UCLA. (...)

RP: You had several teachers in high school that were very supportive of your goals?

SK: Yes, I had two teachers that I can think of. In fact, one was our neighbor, Mrs. Drendel. Remember her? (...) They encouraged me to, to apply for scholarships which I think I mentioned. I did get a two year scholarship to USC and four years to UCLA, so I (decided on) UCLA. (...) In those days it didn't amount to too much I'm sure, because tuition was so low. But I lived in this dormitory, a (...) girls dormitory, right on campus. And I worked in the kitchen for my board and room. So...

RP: Where did this interest in the foreign service come from?

SK: I guess the teachers must have told me, well maybe you can... even back then there was trouble brewing between Japan and the United States, and they thought maybe I might make a difference someplace. I really wanted to be a foreign correspondent. (...) I wanted to report what was happening overseas, and, never dreaming that, yeah, that was completely out of the question. When I graduated, I couldn't find a job. (...) I couldn't scrub floors. Nobody would take me. But I did take civil service exams and I did get hired a month before Pearl Harbor. [Laughs] So, that was for the State Department of Employment. And (they) moved me to, as I mentioned, Wartime Civilian Control (Administration) had a picture from the Times but I couldn't find it. I know I have it someplace.

RP: Is it in the book?

SK: It's, yeah, no, it's not, I didn't mention it. But...

Off Camera: Were you interviewing...

SK: I'm interviewing, well, I'm issuing permits to a couple of ladies and... I'll find it. And if, if I do, do you want me to send you a copy?

RP: Yes, yes. We'd be very interested in that.

SK: 'Cause there were only two Niseis. Ben Yoshioka was working there and I was working there. Just two of us and we were issuing permits for people to travel five miles beyond their homes for necessary appointments like medical, which was a farce because in the first place, people had to, some of 'em had to travel twenty miles to come to L.A. to get the five mile permit, you know what I'm saying? Anyway, we did that. And then we kept people informed of what the evacuation target dates were and which areas had to leave. That sort of thing.

RP: How did you, how did you get that job?

SK: Okay. I told you I worked for the State Department of Employment? Okay, they moved me when I became too visible (as an interviewer) to doing tests, typing tests for people who were applying for jobs, in the back room. And then from there they moved me into the WCCA because they said they were setting up this agency that was going to help with the orderly evacuation.

RP: Evacuation.

SK: Right, and they needed workers. So that's, that's how they, they transferred me there.

RP: So you knew about this evacuation or that something was coming down the pipes before it actually happened.

SK: Yes.

RP: Remember Executive Order 9066?

SK: Yes, yes, uh-huh. Well, everybody had heard rumors about it. But we didn't really believe it until February 19th.

RP: Do you remember how you felt about that?

SK: I felt betrayed, very disappointed. And I think it's kind of connected (to) my father's feelings. My uncle had written my mother to say he wanted two of us (...) to work for him in his business. And it was up to us or my father to choose which two would go. He decided it would be Aki and Mary because he thought that (with me), working for the government, our family would be exempt from evacuation. Anyway, he kind of thought that we had special privileges because of my job. And when 9066 came out then he knew that it wouldn't happen. That we would have to go and he would have to go, too.

RP: So how, when did Aki and Mary leave to go to New York? Was it just before the evacuation orders started to be issued?

SK: Yeah, it was March, well actually, it was Girls Day, March the 3rd. [Laughs] Yeah, they had to leave. I remember because that was the first year that my mother did not make those sweet cakes. That was a (sign) of what was happening.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2009 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.