<Begin Segment 14>

SG: And so what did you do after university?

MK: Well, my mother said that there was a job offer to work in the liquor company like making wine. Well, when I was in the university, first two years are general education. The third year, the fourth year, you specialize in something. I learned how to use tractors. I promised my governor that I would learn everything, but I realized that I was not machine oriented. I wanted the tractor to go forward, it went backward, and it was too dangerous, and I didn't understand all those machines. So, and then also that working in the field was not for me, so I majored in fermentation chemistry. So I began to learn how to make wine, sake, miso, tofu, all these things that will be useful in Brazil as a housewife. I wanted to become a picture bride and go to Brazil and make money. But by the time I graduated, my mother said, "Well, it's better to get a teacher's certificate," and at the same time, well, my mother was very ambitious for me. "Why don't you go to graduate school?" But graduate school didn't exist at the time, and only the government just established one year graduate school degree, so immediately I was the number one student to go into that graduate level, fukushigo we say, not masters, before that, one year. Then while I was there, I got a teacher's certificate in agriculture and in biology. Then as a trainee, I became the number one student, so I was able to choose whatever school I wanted to teach. But the moment that became apparent, my mother had more ambition for me. And then after I got the certificate, then I thought I was going to become a schoolteacher, but then I realized that wait a minute, I have to teach this subject every year, the same thing. Is this something what I want? And obviously, the answer was no. I wanted to do something else. And exactly at that point, there was an opening at medical school as a research assistant. And then I wondered which I should do, work in a fermentation, the chemistry using the background of fermentation chemistry to work in the wine company or become a teacher in biology or to go to medical school to become a research assistant eventually to graduate school, and I said, "Why not?" Then my mother said, "Why not? You should go, I think you'll be very good at, eventually if you can do some kind of clinical analysis in the crime scene and all these things." My mother always stood me up in that direction, so I said, "Okay, I'll do that then." So I began to work in the department of physiology, and I was the first woman in the history of medical school in that department, and they are not used to having women. And it's kind of hard. When I was there and working there, and professor was very good. Professor Hayashi was so kind to me, and I really enjoyed working for him. But after one year or so, the dean of, back in the agriculture department called me up and then said, "At the University of Hawaii, Congress just established East-West Center, and they're inviting graduate students from thirty-two Asian nations. Would you like to go representing Japan? And I think it suits your personality because the purpose of the East-West Center was to live together with other people and then bring some understanding between East and West." And he felt that the entire professor, the conference, they discussed it. I was the most suited person to represent Japan. So he said that, the dean said that the entire professors will push you and recommend highly, so try it, and I thought about it. I went home to my mother. My mother kept thinking, you're going to University of Hawaii and all these things. She said, "I wonder by saying yes, I wonder if I'm saying the right thing, for your future," and so she couldn't quite make up her mind. But I went ahead anyway and applied, and I was very fortunate. I was dating at the time a newspaper man, very bright man from Kyushu University. And then I didn't know English, and English was not a requirement at the time, and he filled out the application form for me. And when you think about it, that's the beginning of problems, but I got accepted. The first time around, men was accepted first, and this man in art history was supposed to come, and I was in the second. And I, well, I was rejected, so I said, well. But it so happened that he was discovered to have tuberculosis, so he couldn't get it. So they called me up and said, "Are you still interested in it?" So I said, "Sure enough." You know, I wanted to go, so I came, best thing happened in my life.

SG: That's great.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2003 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.