Densho Digital Archive - George Hara Interview (denshovh-hgeorge

<Begin Segment 18>

GH: Anyway, my experience was very broad, something I could just get, you know, from going to college or school, but I was -- all that time, I didn't want to get married there or stay there. I wanted to still come back with the hope of going to medical school and being a doctor. I thought that was something I had to achieve. And so when I came back, got discharged from the army, there was sort of a period of adjustment from all that high cost of living. When I went to Reid, I couldn't quite hack it there. I went to University of Oregon, actually the teachers were very nice, but one of the requirements in my junior year was write a paper, and that was something that was beyond me. I just couldn't put time and effort into a, you know, original paper. I went to Oregon over there. They didn't have any requirements, and there were more Niseis like I said. I've roomed with them, so again, I'm with a bunch of, you know, Nisei, but I went to medical school, finally got in. Yeah.

[Interruption]

GH: After my month at the University of Oregon premedics, I applied for admission into University of Oregon Medical School. Unfortunately, maybe too much time was spent reminiscing about my experiences in Japan and not enough time spent in the classroom. Anyway, I wasn't admitted at that time, so I enrolled at the University of Washington in the postgraduate study. And of all the subjects, I chose one I was probably the least qualified in and that was chemistry. So I went up to Seattle, and I roomed on campus down in the dormitory with a hakujin classmate. And about three blocks away, there was a all Japanese coop of sorts called SYNKOA House, and I found out that I could eat my meals there, and they had a Japanese cook; and occasionally, he would prepare Japanese style food. On the other hand, when he prepared American food, it tasted like Japanese cooking. Anyway, I made good friends with students at University of Washington at the SYNKOA House; among them, some were MIS veterans. A real good friend of mine was a member of the 442, Bob Sato, and Bob is very active and well-known in the Northwest and elsewhere promoting activities of Niseis during World War II and promoting the development of memorials. I keep in touch with Bob and feel very close to him, and we play golf together with his wife. Anyway, after going through a carefree time at the University of Washington, I received a very happy letter being accepted into medical school. This was probably one of the happiest days of my life. And so I was ready to matriculate, I guess, at the University of Oregon Medical School in Portland, Oregon. Meanwhile, my social life went into another phase, I found a perfectly lovely delightful lady I wanted to be married to, and she was a Portland Nisei, Yoneko Inuzuka. And after our somewhat harrowing courtship era, we were married in July of 1949, I believe, about the same year I was ready to start medical school.