Densho Digital Archive - Michiko Kornhauser Interview (denshovh-kmichiko

<Begin Segment 16>

MK: Yeah, you talked about, we are talking about the East-West Center. I told you that before I came, here at the selection process, English was not required, and everything was based upon the interview as well as recommendation and then test scores going back to the junior high school, and that has to be all translated into English and then submitted. My boyfriend helped me out on that one. And then being in Okayama, we didn't have English-speaking teachers as I grew up. They taught us English. But I remember one time an American visitor came to this school and he was supposed, our English teacher was supposed to translate the conversation. He did nothing but profusely perspire. He was so embarrassed. So that's the way I learned English, so I didn't know much about how to speak any English. The second day after we arrived, we had to take English examination. And then one of the tests that I can remember was to translate Asahi Shinbun, "Tensei Jingo," the editorial section at the bottom and then commentary, I guess. And it talked about rush hour or I didn't know how to spell rush hour. It talked about embassy, and oh, I had to translate into English without dictionary, and I couldn't do that. And then my test score was second from the bottom. The bottom person was Korean, and I was from the second from the bottom. And then this Korean student later on became a professor in microbiology and then became a professor in Toronto, University of Toronto. But at the time, the English was the most important thing. And then both of us according to dean's office, two of us, and Dean Haiser said, "Your two scores are so bad, it's just no use staying there. You can't even attend classes. You wouldn't understand it. Why don't you go home?" And I said, "Go home? I quit medical school. And if I go home, it will be too embarrassed, it will be embarrassing my family. I can't go home." And I said, I thought about my mother's songs, Madame Butterfly, and I thought about committing suicide. And I said, "If I have to go home, I understood go home, I went, have to kill myself." And then dean said, "No." Dean Haiser said, "Don't do that," you know. Then I said, "Give me three months. I will study English and English ESL," and then English Language Institute and then had to go, and mine was, Mr. Park and my English was so bad, I had to go to English Language Institute, 50, and it's starting out from the bottom. But then, I wasn't quite satisfied with 50. I wanted to finish everything in three months, so skip lunch, skip everything. I attended one after another; 50, 60, 70, everything that's available as far as times are concerned. And then one professor complained, "That woman is in my class when she's not supposed to be here." But then I said, "Well, why not? I don't understand what you're saying," so I just smiled and stayed. And after that, he didn't complain anymore. And after three months of that, I really worked hard and then took a test. Then mine was in the, the score was quite high. I was able to stay on.

But meanwhile, I realized that I couldn't understand a word of what's going on. I belonged to the department of microbiology, and I didn't understand anything about it. So I told my academic adviser no way I can do anything, so I'd like to go for a non-degree candidate and then learn as much as I could in this country to take back to Japan. They agreed. So I studied in the English Language Institute at the same time taking one class or two in microbiology. And that's the way I stayed for about two years, no, year and a half. Was it year and a half or a year, then 1961, September, I came and then '62, year and a half, yeah. Then in February of 1963, I was allowed to go on the study tour, and then I received another scholarship to go to the Communicable Disease Center in Atlanta, Georgia. So meanwhile, I was able to get the bus, a Greyhound bus ticket, ninety-nine dollars to go around the entire United States. And then so also I had a very good American family, Chigis family, who adopted me. And then their daughter was also at the East-West Center, so she and I teamed up. And then from San Francisco, we went to San Francisco where her brother was working as a medical doctor. And from there, we went Los Angeles and looked at Disneyland, taxpayers money, and then Grand Canyon and then went to El Paso. By the time I got to El Paso, I was too tired.

And then when we went into a restaurant in Flagstaff, I ordered this lettuce with the mayonnaise on top, and mayonnaise, it was the only language I knew as salad dressing. I always asked for mayonnaise. And then when I lifted mayonnaise to spread over the salad, I found a green worm dead, and I screamed, and somebody said the next table, "They don't want you here." And I didn't know what to do, and then nobody helped me out, and my friend said, "Let's get out." So that's the way I learned about prejudice in this country, in Arizona. And then by the time I got to El Paso on the bus, I saw another Asian girl, so look like Chinese, the long face and so on, so I went up to her. In the broken English, we communicated. Then I finally asked her where she was from and she said she was from Tokyo, and she thought that I was Korean because my face was kind of square. And then I realized that we can't tell the difference between Asian, I mean, between Japanese and Korean. So ever since, I never judge people by their appearance. And by the time I got to El Paso, I was too tired of traveling by bus, so we flew to New Orleans.