<Begin Segment 3>

HH: Did you ever get a chance to go to school eventually?

GO: Eventually. I actually went to pick grapes in Lodi, California, and after grape season was over, we came back to my guardians, the Yamasakis and they allowed me to stay with them, they're just a couple. And so I started to go back to school to pick up my English, which was lost while I was in Japan, so I started high school again at El Grove High School.

HH: This was a public high school that you went to?

GO: Public high school.

HH: I see. And how many years did you go to this high school?

GO: Well, I was in junior year when I ruined my health and I was compelled to take a rest. So that's where my high school education was interrupted.

HH: I see.

GO: But while I was recuperating, there was a chance to take a business college course. So I was able to do that and also work at the institution where I was confined.

HH: Oh, and where was this business college?

GO: This was under the State Bureau of Vocational Rehabilitation.

HH: I see.

GO: So it was one-to-one kind of situation, private tutoring and accounting and business English and typing and that kind of thing.

HH: Ah, I see. So this was a very intimate kind of education that you received.

GO: And then while there, he encouraged me to take a state civil service test, which I did, and fortunately passed. So I must have passed pretty high, because I must have passed pretty high because right away, they asked me to come for interviews, so I accepted the position in the accounts and disbursement office of the state department of agriculture in Sacramento, that was in 1942.

HH: What kinds of discrimination if any did you encounter in that part of California in that time in your life?

GO: Well, I remember as a child when we are going to Sacramento and we had a big Studebaker. Because my father had a partner, Morishige family, so he needed a big car. So it was a huge Studebaker, and I remember, as the anti-Japanese feeling gets worse and worse, tomatoes were thrown at us and so forth, but nothing physically dangerous. And after coming back, during that time, I was sort of in sheltered surroundings, so I didn't feel any discrimination at that time.

HH: Do you recall whether there's difficulty getting served on public services and housing or were you restricted to certain areas?

GO: I was still alone at that time, so I was staying in a hotel alone and eating out in Sacramento, so that I could be close to my work.

HH: Would it be fair to say then that this is the kind of life that you were leading up to the point of the beginning of the Second World War?

GO: Yes, and I was hoping that this may develop into a career, because you could take on taking another test and advance.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 1994 JACL Philadelphia. All Rights Reserved.