<Begin Segment 25>

TI: So after you finished and get your education degree, tell me a little bit about your career. What did you do?

KO: Well, I looked for work with high hopes, and was told in 1950, from a lot of districts, "We're not interested in you." A couple of districts said, "We're interested in you, but I don't know how the community will accept a Japanese in our community, because we ain't had none."

TI: And this is in the Portland area?

KO: This is the state of Oregon, actually. But I substituted in 1950, '51 school years, and I looked for work, a regular job, and I couldn't find one in teaching. That was, I don't say the end of my school teaching in Oregon, but that was the end of my school teaching in Oregon.

TI: And then what did you do?

KO: Well, I fell back on my military experience as a weather observer, and applied for work with an airline which had opened a position of dispatcher's aide, which required weather experience. And I applied for that job with an airline that was expanding their route to Portland, and had a call from them saying, "If you want a job, you can come tomorrow and start if you want."

TI: Okay, so that became your career then.

KO: Well, that became a career for the next three years or so. I came up to Seattle to work for Pacific Northern Airlines. But I worked for my Washington State teaching certificate at the same time, and in 1953 started to work for the Seattle Public School District, which became my career.

TI: Okay, and so what grade level did you teach?

KO: I taught grades four, five and six, mostly, with half of the time in physical ed.

TI: Okay. And I'm curious, what school were you?

KO: I started at High Point School in West Seattle, then I went to Olympic View and John Rogers in the north end, and retired from North Beach.

TI: Okay. And so a long career with the Seattle Public Schools.

KO: Well, thirty years.

TI: That's pretty long. [Laughs] So to sort of bring this interview to an end, I like to kind of just have you just reflect a little bit in terms of when you think back about the war years and what you and your family went through, now even thinking of that time when you were angry, and I'm wondering, how do you think that changed? If you thought about your trajectory before the war and what your life was going to be, and then the war happened, how do you think that changed who you are and what you became?

KO: I don't know if the war changed me. In writing about my own memoirs, I think I was the person I am today at about age twelve, thirteen, fourteen.

TI: So before the war.

KO: I am that person, I think. In terms of accepting everything that comes in your life, and still going on, these are just... if there are glitches, it's just a glitch, you go on with it. But looking at things positively, of course, the war experience we had was and is and will always be unjust, and it shouldn't happen. It was wrong, but our government faced up to it and said, "We were wrong." They even said, "We're not going to let it happen again," and that's true. It was just one, as far as my life is concerned, it was just one part of it. I've gone on and done a lot of different things, and every part of my life has just been an interesting experience.

TI: I'm curious, when you were a teacher, did you tell your students what happened to you during the war?

KO: Often. In fact, a few years back when the Olympic View school, the old Olympic View school was razed and a new building was put up, they had a celebration of the alums from Olympic View school. And kids I had forty years before that, the kids I had in 1950-some, were there, and I remember one of the kids now, sixty years old or something, telling me, "Gosh, I really appreciate the things you've told us about your experiences including the camp days." I have often talked about... of course, I did more talking than teaching. [Laughs]

TI: No, I think it's important that students knew or heard what happened to you, as well as the other teachers, I hope they did also.

KO: Yeah, yeah. But I do still speak, go to schools and speak about the Japanese American experience.

TI: Good. So is there anything else that you want to talk about before we end the interview? Any question I didn't ask that...

KO: No, if you have any questions (I have answers for) everything...

TI: No, this was fabulous. So, Kenji, thank you so much for doing this.

KO: Thank you.

TI: It was really, really interesting, and I learned a lot, so thank you.

<End Segment 25> - Copyright © 2014 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.