Densho Digital Archive - John Tomita Interview (denshovh-tjohn

<Begin Segment 9>

KP: So you graduated from Berkeley High School.

JT: Yeah.

KP: And then you decided to immediately to go into, you went to college right after that?

JT: Yeah. You know, those days I didn't even know I was supposed to go to college. But, I got a letter saying I'm accepted at Cal. And so I said, oh, I thought, well, I came to school here anyway so I went to Cal. I didn't realize... I think this was my class went to Cal. And a lot of the, in high school we had a homeroom and in homeroom, gee, out of that home room I was the only one that went to Cal. I didn't even know that until I went to Cal and somehow they accepted me so I just, I didn't have to take any tests or anything and...

KP: So, you went in to study civil engineering, or engineering? Is that...

JT: Well I, first I didn't know what I was gonna study. But since my algebra teacher, my home room teacher Miss Harris always, she said I should go into engineering because I'm good at math. So, freshman year I wasn't sure. But kind of a general course thing. And then the sophomore year I start to take... I thought well, better go into study civil engineering.

KP: What did you envision yourself doing when you got out of college in that first, first couple a years at college? What did you see yourself doing?

JT: Well, you know, I was crazy about cars. And I always liked the design of the car and somehow I thought I might go into mechanical engineering and design. But, more I study it, I said no, that's not my... I didn't have the artistic talent and, yeah. Yeah, so I said, well, civil is kind of dull but, but I was in junior year when we had to go to camp.

KP: Where were you living when you were going to Cal?

JT: Oh, I was, that's right, I was in the dormitory. I was in dormitory. Yes, on Channing Way. Yeah. There was a Buddhist church there and they, I don't know how they acquired the building next door. Yeah, and they made that a Buddhist student dormitory.

KP: How many, how many other Buddhist students or Japanese students were there in Cal at that time?

JT: Oh, it was an awful lot. They said, they said there was around five hundred. But I really don't know. But there was quite a few. They came from all over California.

KP: How did that, how did that feel going back into a, pretty much into a Japanese community again? Even though it was just in the dormitory.

JT: Yes. But, you know, when, when I got into Cal I was so absorbed in the studies, I mean, gee, I had a hard time keeping up with the classes. Seemed like, I used to, I liked to go to dances and whatnot. But in college I think I only went once. It's just, I just didn't have time. And, another thing, I didn't have a lot of money. [Laughs] I was still working.

KP: What were you working doing to put yourself through college?

JT: Well, yeah. I know I, this family, he was a manager or something of the Sherwin Williams Paint Company. And he used to, every weekend I'd, he'd want me to paint the fences and know a way to paint the fences. And paint the basement. So he, he seemed to have found, find jobs for me every weekend, so I used to go down there. And, and the pay was good. In those days farmers were paying only twenty-five cents an hour, something. But I used to get close to fifty cents an hour.

KP: So you'd go to school during the week and work on the weekends?

JT: Yeah. I mean, that was my income. Yeah.