<Begin Segment 9>

MR: Let's go back to college. It was in Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, what was the school?

MY: I went to what was called Drexel Institute of Technology in those days. Now it's called Drexel University, and it's part of the University of Pennsylvania.

MR: Did it... did your education at Heart Mountain have any influence on getting into college? Was it any more difficult? What was the admission process like?

MY: I had graduated high school in Heart Mountain. But when I tried to get into college, a lot of the schools, not a lot, but there were a couple of them that would not accept my credits. They said that, you know, this won't do as a college entrance. So Drexel finally accepted me under the condition that I go back to summer school and make up a couple courses, couple credits, and so I went to Temple University High School the first summer after I started Drexel, and I took Spanish and English to make up my credits.

MR: So I'm trying to get this straight. You went through a year of college, and then they had you go back to high school and make up credits?

MY: Yes.

MR: What did you study in college?

MY: I majored in home economics with a specialty of designing.

MR: Designing what?

MY: Fashions, textiles.

MR: Upon graduation, what did do you with that degree?

MY: Well, I got a job in Philadelphia, first at this department store, Gimbles, in the display department, setting up displays and painting backdrops for their windows. And then later on, I got a job in a fashion designing house designing teenage clothes. And then this program that I entered at Drexel was called a work study program. We would go to school for a semester, and then we'd work for a semester and then go back to school. And this way, we got our practical training as long, as well as our formal training. And so I worked at this company in Philadelphia, and I worked for one season in New York City... well, actually two seasons in New York. So it's not only very interesting, but I was able to earn money in that way to save up enough money to go to school the following semester.

MR: Where did you work in New York?

MY: I worked for Patula Modes With the designer Joe Copeland and at B. Altman Company which is a large department store on Fifth Avenue.

MR: And so for you, what was it like to be on the East Coast during the war?

MY: Well, it was very exciting. When my mother and I worked at Seabrook, my sisters in the meantime had moved to New York City and were living with friends there. They had a large apartment. And so after my mother... my mother left to join my sisters when I went to school in Philadelphia, and then I joined them after I graduated and for my work study programs. And it was, it's a nice place to live if you're single and, you know, you're young, but I wouldn't want to do that with a family at all.

MR: When you were in New York, did you have the time or was the culture because of the war, was the culture booming? Were there things to go and see and do or...

MY: Oh, yes. There was lots to do there and in Philadelphia also. And then they had the Japanese church, and well, actually, they had a couple churches. They had the Methodist church and the Buddhist church. But whenever a group of Japanese get together, you know, they have this common camp experience, so there's always something to draw them together and to share, and so we had a lot of social life in New York, and it was fun. It was very exciting.

MR: So you went back and forth between school and New York; is that right?

MY: Yes, or if I was working in Philadelphia, I'd just stay there and worked and then went to school the following semester.

MR: It sounds like a lot of fun.

MY: It was.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2003 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.