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TI: The campus of the University of Wisconsin was a beautiful place. It was sitting next to a large lake called Lake Mendota. And every winter, this lake would freeze over, and the ice would be so thick that the cars would drive on it, and they also had ski sailing, and of course all the students were ice skating. In the meanwhile, I was attending classes. I got a job working in the kitchen of a sorority house, sorority houses. I would work different, one place to another. But eventually, I ended up working for, working at the girl's dormitory called Elizabeth Waters. I worked down in the dishwashing room and that was my job. So I stayed there and worked all the while that I was going to school until 1944, '46. I also met many, many new friends. I had a friend who lived in Janesville, Wisconsin, and he would invite me to his home on holidays. Other times, I would go to Chicago by train as a friend of mine who went to University of Oregon was living in Chicago, Harry Fukuda. So I would visit him from time to time. The winters were extremely cold as you know; be in the summertime, it is extremely hot and humid, but I went to school five continuous semesters from 1944 to '46

I applied to medical school at the University of Oregon, and I think one of the most pleasant surprise, happy moment, was when I learned that I was accepted at the school. And I had anticipated they would ask me to come in for an interview, but fortunately, I was able to be accepted without the interview. Well, after school was over in spring of 1946, I was pretty much broke. So in order to get back to Ontario, I hitchhiked all the way from Madison to Ontario, and this took me about a week, but I found that the truck drivers were very kind to pick up hitchhikers. Of course one thing that helped was I had a suitcase with the University of Oregon logo on it which made it easier for them to recognize me. But after I got back to Ontario, this was in June, I worked the rest of the summer on the farm. And then in September, I moved to Portland to begin the medical school.

Well, in medical school, it was quite a lonesome experience here because I didn't know anyone. I rented a single room in the basement of an apartment, and this room was just large enough to hold a single bed and a desk, and the bathroom was down the hall. Well, I stayed there for three years, and then I was married in 1949, and we moved to a larger apartment. My wife came out from San Antonio, Texas. During my senior year, I worked at the Saint Vincent's Hospital as an extern, and this paid me a meager salary of fifty dollars a month.

After we were married, we bought a car, and this was a 1930 Model A Ford for which I paid 125 dollars.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2003 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.