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AS: So now, I was, what, going on thirteen years. I was in the eighth grade in the country school. And the teacher who taught there, he taught from first grade through the eighth grade, every grade. This one teacher taught us, and his wife was a musician. She played the piano. So whenever we had Halloween or Christmas or holidays of any kind, she would play the piano. There will be a potluck. And after the meal, everybody had to dance. The teacher was a great big man. Oh, he was so big. He was from New York City, quite elderly, but very intelligent man. And even the six years old, he said, "You have to dance too." And so, I thought that was great fun, you know. And so I went through grade school. And at the time, my teacher, everyone in the eighth grade write an essay, whatever you want, so I wrote an essay, and he was quite impressed. And he helped me finish writing, and he reported to the county graduation banquet that I should be the valedictorian of the whole class, of all the schools, so I represented all the schools. I was the valedictorian of that class. Yeah. He wrote, he helped me write the essay, and he said, "Silver and gold may vanish away, but that which you learn will never decay." And everybody, oh, they thought that was wonderful, you know. So that was the high school year.

Then, time to have a, have more education, so my oldest sister, she thought, well, Mother and Father worry so much of us seven girls in the family, and why not go to Mills College which is a women's college, and they wouldn't have to worry about us. So my oldest sister went through Mills. And then it was my turn to go. And she was a senior and I was a freshmen, so I entered Mills, and it was very sad to part with our parents for the very first time for me. Well, I was there for three years, and then my youngest sister, Mary, was ready to come. She wanted to go to Mills. Well, I knew it was a very expensive college, and it would be very hard for my father, and I didn't care for school anyway, so I decided, heck, let her go, and I will just quit at three years. So I just went three years to Mills. And then I went on to San Francisco. I liked music so much, I studied voice lessons there for a while.

And then my parents thought, well, it's time for you to get married. In a women's college, you don't get to meet men much, you know. The house mothers used to make dates for us from University of Washington which is, I mean University of California in Berkeley and also Stanford University. We had men, our house mothers would make a date for us. And my very first date from Stanford, he brought me nine corsages, like so long, you know. I was the talk of the college. "Alice, what is that?" [Laughs] But it was fun. That was quite an experience for me. And you know, when we entered Mills, all the freshmen class are taught us a song, should I sing it? And this song has always remained in the back of my mind and kind of kept me going when life got tough. I would remember this song. [Sings] "Oh, Evalou, oh, Evalou. There is nothing in this world you cannot do. You took the monkey and you made it into men long since 'tis true. But now you brought a greater phenomena today. You took the class of '32 and made the freshmen class. Oh, when you're fame and glory, your name will not surpass. Oh, Eva, Iva, Ova evolution." I thought that was such an inspiring song for me. And so whenever I felt blue, I would think of the song and think, well, I have to go on. And in the old days, the parents' friends on the girl's side and the parents' friend on the men's side, they find a suitable person, and the go-betweens get together and arrange a date for us to meet, so that's the way I met my husband. When I first saw him in San Francisco, well, that's where they came from Portland to San Francisco, I thought, "Oh my, he's so old," is the impression I had, and he was so much in favor. He says, oh, he wanted to get married right away, and I said, "May I have about two weeks to think it over?" And he kept saying, "Oh, let's get engaged now." You know, he insisted. And my mother took me aside, and she said, "You know, you are not going to have opportunity meeting people too much because you're getting older. So maybe it will be a good time for you to get married." And I listened to her, and oh well, it is true. I am. I was quite up in my age, nearing thirty. That was very old, you know. And so, I decided all right. In three days, I had an engagement ring given to me, and in two weeks, we were married. That was really quick.

Then, when I was, after I became pregnant, I was having trouble, so I went into the hospital. Then I had a real bad stomachache, so I rang the bell and rang the bell, but no nurse, no doctor, no one would come. Later, I found out that Japan had struck Pearl Harbor. All the doctors and nurses were all by the, radio listening to what happened and what was going on, so I had miscarriage. And after that, I was very unfortunate. I had never been able to conceive, and so I have been childless all these years. Anyway, after I got married, we had to, soon after our marriage, six months later, we had to evacuate. General Dewitt announced that all Japanese, regardless of your citizenship, must vacate your home and go inland, so we were all at first the Portland people. They gave us two weeks' time to get ready, very difficult to sell your property or get rid of your things in two weeks' time, but we did the best we could. They gave us only two suitcases to carry with us. That's all. Everything we had to leave behind. So my husband made arrangement with his attorney to watch the house for him since his mother owned the house in Portland, so he asked him if he would watch the house. He was supposed to put one renter in there, but we later found out there were seven families living in the house, just wrecked everything. Anyway, we were evacuated.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2005 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.