<Begin Segment 9>

BH: You and your friend Reiko decided to go to Pacific University. What did you study there?

HI: Well, I took a liberal arts course at first, and we had to take religion, because that's Congregational college. I just went there for two years and decided I'd spent enough money. So came home and came back and went into business.

BH: Yeah, you also went to secretarial school? And then where did you work?

HI: I worked for Bausch and Lomb, but that was so boring I didn't like it. So I applied for the federal job at the VA hospital, (...) some employment with the federal government, and I ended up at the VA hospital and worked for a pathologist there in the lab. That was very interesting and I really enjoyed that. This pathologist treated me so good (...). The pathologist does autopsies and they read lab, the slides, microscopic slides, and he would dictate all that to me. One day he says, "You're coming down to the morgue with me," and I said, "No, I'm not." He says, "Yeah, it's not bad." After a few weeks he kept hounding me, so I gave in and went down. And the first time I did, I went to a corner, the farthest corner and turned my back. He said, "I like to give my reports like this. I don't like talking into a Dictaphone or whatever." So I did that, and you get used to it. I didn't do that all the time, but I did that quite a few times.

BH: And how did you meet your future husband Yosh Inahara?

HI: That was at Pacific University, Forest Grove. And there were other, quite a few Japanese boys over there, too, and girls. But there were several from Hood River, (...) we just met one day. I worked at the library, too, so he came in the library and introduced himself. (...) He worked in the kitchen, so I'd go through the kitchen every day for meals and see him there.

BH: After Pacific, you went on to secretarial school. What did Yosh do after Pacific?

HI: He graduated with a chemistry degree and then decided to go to Oregon State for pharmacy. So he finished (there in) two years and finished (and) got his pharmacy degree. At that time -- he was an alien because he was born in Japan when his mother was on vacation, and he was only two or three months old when they came (back) and hadn't been back since. So he was an alien. That gave him a little trouble getting his license, because to be a pharmacist, you have to be a resident.

BH: Right.

HI: So when the Walters Bill went through in 1953, he was the first in line. And he studied the Constitution and everything, and the guy says, "Oh, you know more than I do. You're okay." So he passed and got his license.

BH: Okay, so he became a naturalized citizen then?

HI: (Yes).

BH: Okay. So Yosh studied pharmacy. Did he work down in Corvallis for a while or did he work up here?

HI: No. After he graduated, he got (...) an intern job at Seaton Pharmacy. I think his brother or somebody told him there was an opening there, so he applied and got the job. (...) And then after a few years, quite a few years, the owner asked if he'd become a partner. So he signed up to be a partner, and the owner retired in '72 and wanted to sell it, so we decided to buy it, buy the business.

BH: Seatons, and where was Seatons located?

HI: It was located on Sixtieth and Belmont in the Mount Tabor area, across from Portland (...) Sanitarium. So he kept busy.

BH: And it wasn't just a pharmacy. What else did Seatons provide?

HI: We had a fountain, like a soda fountain, which served hamburgers and fries and (...) milkshakes. Then we had a post office and a pay station for utilities, plus the pharmacy. So that kept us pretty busy.

BH: And did you work at the soda fountain?

HI: No, not as much, 'cause I had to hire and fire, and took care of the post office mainly, for me.

BH: You know, several Japanese Americans worked at the pharmacy. Who worked there?

HI: Well, Sherry Okazaki worked in the fountain for a while until she was able to find more permanent work. And Lennie Tanaka worked for us. She came in one day with Butch and Nobi Okazaki, Nobi came to pick up his prescription, and Lennie was a good friend of Butch. So she came in and was looking around, and pretty soon she comes to Yosh and she says, "I'm going to work for you," just like that. Yosh says, "Oh, okay." She started to work for us and was there for thirteen years. She was quite a lady.

BH: She was. And where were you and Yosh married?

HI: We were married here in Portland at Mount Tabor Presbyterian.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2014 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.