<Begin Segment 8>

MH: After, where did you go after you left New York City?

LS: To Washington DC for NIH, National Institute of Health where they had quite a program. After Sputnik, government put a lot of money on research, and they employed a lot of people. Also Japanese scientists from Japan got fellowship to come to NIH. And Yoshio was bilingual, and he was able to help these people, and so I met many friends from Japan. I tried to learn Japanese, but I didn't get very far, but I had them over for Japanese New Year's dinner every year, and they appreciated it. And when I go to Japan, I have friends scattered all over Japan. If I keep them in touch, I suppose I could still visit them, but I've given up. I've been too busy.

MH: In your stay at Washington D.C., did you work?

LS: There was teacher shortage, and so I don't know why, but one of the principal, her name was Dr. Laramie, insist I teach, so I taught in that school, Twin Booth Elementary School. About that time, Yoshio became quite famous, and we were invited, he was invited to tour different laboratories in Europe, and I got a leave from, one month's leave from teaching, and I travelled with him through Europe; went from London to Netherlands to Frankfurt to Vienna, Venice, Paris, and came back in one month's time. And of course I came back in time to issue the report cards, but the substitute took care of that, and she was pleased to take over my class.

MH: Did you take your children with you on this trip?

LS: No. The two boys were left at, we had a house in Rockville, Maryland, at that time, and one of the couples was there on fellowship, stayed at my house at looked after the two boys. One was in junior high and, no. One was in elementary school. My older son was in junior high school, and they went to school for that one month. They took care of them.

MH: Now you mentioned you went to Japan with your husband also.

LS: Yes. We were invited to go to Japan and let's see, oh, we had a sabbatical, we had a number of trips. The association invited us and friends of different meetings to Japan Chemical Society meetings held in Japan. We went couple times to Sendai and Sapporo and some other... Tokyo. And after ten years at NIH, we got a sabbatical, and we could go to foreign countries, so the whole family went to Tokyo, Japan, for a whole year. After they make you, we made it from August to, for a year, and I taught at the American School in Japan in Tokyo which was established in 1912, and I taught there which was very pleasant. Class was only fifteen children, and we had special teachers, so I was never, had to take any work home to do any homework for them. And we had our holidays. When I went to Japan, I knew, I called the university close by and asked if there was a student who can help, and come and help with my boys. There was a fellow that they sent me, and this fellow taught, took the boys every weekend and on their holidays to know how to get around Tokyo, how to make changes and went on weekends to hikes. They took kendo lessons and judo and baseball games, they went together, and other places. So they became very familiar, and I didn't have to worry about the boys at all. The two boys went together, and yes, after many years, this fellow came to visit us in Washington, D.C. He had been sent by his company to Chicago and made an effort to come and see the boys, and it was very pleasant. It was a very good thing he did.

MH: Did the boys go to school when --

LS: Yes. They went to American School in Japan. The younger one was first year in junior high school, and the second son, older son was in first year in high school at the American School. It went from kindergarten to high school there, and so they were able to get their credit. At that time, we carried the same course of study so that was good.

MH: After the one year sabbatical in Tokyo, where did you come back to? Did you come back to Washington, D.C.?

LS: Yes. We had a home. We kept our home, but it was rented out to a Naval officer which barely used our house, and it was in good condition. The neighbor who bought our car picked us up at the airport and things went fairly smoothly.

MH: You mentioned an outing with your family to the beach. What was that like?

LS: Oh, yes. That was about, early in our time that we moved to Washington, D.C., we tried to go to a beach, and neighbors said it was exclusive, no Japanese or Jewish people, neither were admitted. And so we felt very angry about that, but there wasn't much we could do. But there, I noticed that when we lived in New York, we took a trip all the way down to Florida on a weekend on vacation, and we were shocked the way the black people were treated. They served, people served us, but the black people had to sit and wait until we were served before they were served in the stores. And there were bathrooms for black and for the others. And we were shocked about that going through from Virginia, Carolinas, Georgia to Florida and back. We felt very sorry for them.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2003 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.