<Begin Segment 5>

JC: So now you've graduated from high school. What next, what happens?

FO: Well, I had, I think it's all due to Miss Azalea Peet. She, I believe she set the groundwork for me to enter Eastern Oregon College of Education, and I went there the following year and entered into the cadet nurse's program. That's another government sponsored program, and finished a whole year. And that was, the cadet nurses finished the first year, and, and then the group was to go to the Dalles Hospital on our next step of our training. And they'd come and tell me that I am not allowed to go because it happens to be in a restricted zone. I thought, oh, they won't allow me to go. So then I'm sure it was through Miss Azalea Peet, I wrote this letter to Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt pleading with her that, can I return to this zone to finish my training, and I had letters to show that it went through the channels. And finally, I'm given permission to join my classmates. But it's almost six months later, and I have my pass today to show that I was allowed to return. But since... well, was it in the interim now I have been here, the school tried to arrange for me to transfer to a group in Salt Lake, also the same program. And here I'm going to Salt Lake City all on my own, and I meet up with this director of nurses who was most unkind.

[Interruption]

FO: I think that's the first time I faced discrimination. She had me, she grilled me one day, and she said, "I see where you've been to Japan. You were in school in Japan. What did you take up in Japan?" Well, I'm just a young school kid. What could I say. I said, "It was a girl's private school, liberal arts. What else would I be learning?" But she grilled me like I was enemy number one. And then she went on to say, "Your records, your school records, you lack in algebra. You should go back and pick up some more credits before you can enter the program." Well, I confess, my educational background was rather smattering because between America and the Japanese training which was real hard. But she was rough with me; she had me in tears. So then I returned to the College of Education again, and I started my second year there. And lo and behold, an army personnel shows up. I don't know how I was found, but I guess they do keep track. I guess they kept track of us there. And they asked if I would like to be a linguist, and I thought, "A linguist?" He says, "There's only one catch." He says, "You have to be a member of the armed services." And I thought, I don't see any harm in being a member of the armed services, I thought.

JC: So you --

FO: So I agreed to... and then I had the paperwork to show that they accepted me, and here I'm going into service from Portland, Oregon, during the days that the area was restricted. That's how I became a member of the Armed Services. But my basic training was at, in Fort Des Moines, Iowa, and it was a wonderful experience. As I've said before, discrimination is something that I have never felt except for this, the nursing director who grilled me. But I think the experience in service was really wonderful when I compare it with my friends who stayed in the internment centers. That was a waste. But so much more could have been accomplished if they had come out and even joined the services.

JC: So you see that as having been an opportunity?

FO: It was a stepping stone for me. It was a wonderful experience.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2003 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.