In late 1944, the UO President’s Office likely received an inquiry from Yuka Yasui about enrolling in the winter term of 1945. Earl Pallett, executive assistant to the president, responded by telling Yuka that while she met the requirements by graduating from South Denver High School, she would be the only Japanese American student on campus.

He wrote, “Prior to the present war there were registered in the University of Oregon a number of students of Japanese parentage. As you know, during the war no individual of Japanese descent have been registered in the institution. Your inquiry is the first one we have received, and if you should decide to enter undoubtedly you would be the only individual of Japanese descent on campus. While you would be eligible to enter the institution upon graduation from South High School in Denver, provided, of course, that special clearance was obtained through the Western Defense Command, I merely wish to bring the above point to your attention. Of course, you realize that we have no control over the personal reactions of the students, and we have no way of knowing what those reactions would be. This point is called to your attention merely for your serious consideration.”

It is a testament to Yuka’s determination and commitment to education that she enrolled in January 1945, despite this less-than-encouraging response.

Early in 1945, the Daily Emerald ran a story on Yuka’s arrival to campus as the first Nisei to enroll. She recounted to the Emerald her incarceration in the Tule Lake camp in California, and her release to travel to Denver to continue her high school education. She was seventeen years old when she arrived on campus, and reported, “I am happy to be here. Everybody has been so nice.”

Yuka later described her arrival to campus, “When I entered the U of O in 1945 the West Coast was still closed. It was hard because no one wanted to room with a Jap, but the student head of Susan Campbell Hall, the girls’ dorm where, earlier, Michi lived, said she would room with me. I used to go to the library and find that the Hood River News was just filled with hateful columns not only about the Japs but specifically the Yasuis.  There was one girl who was from Hood River who would tell the other students about the terrible Yasuis and spread all kinds of lies. That was hard to take.

At one point, I wrote to Dad and told him I was going to leave school and go back to Denver. To Dad and Mom’s credit, they encouraged me to stay. To sweeten the pot, Mom even included a couple of dollars to encourage me to tough it out, and believe me, when our assets were still frozen, it was hard for her to gather up a few dollars. But Mom encouraged me to try to graduate as soon as possible before we ran out of funds, so I got a BA from U of O in 3 years.

So I do have Mom and Dad to thank for encouraging me to get an education. Even in those tough days to think that they were able to send Min through law school, Michi to get her degree in teaching, Roku through engineering school and both Shu and Homer through medical school. And (older brother Tsuyoshi/Ray) Ches, bless him, worked and cared for the orchards so that we could get our education.”

While on campus, Yuka lived in Alpha Hall (now part of Straub Hall). Despite graduating in 1948, Yuka did not appear in the 1947 or 1948 yearbooks. She was mentioned sparingly in the Daily Emerald as well, though one 1946 article mentioned that she was the representative for Alpha Hall in the Town and Gown Club, a group “designed to help students become better acquainted with their professors and local townspeople.”

She recalled Christmas at UO, as well as anxiety about her ability to make tuition payments, writing “Since the dorms closed at Christmas I was so worried that during the holidays I would end up in some homeless shelter. But Ches (older brother Tsuyoshi-Ray) (told me) to come out to Eastern Oregon where they were living. But tuition would soon be due and if I spent whatever money I had on a train ticket I’d probably get kicked out of school for non payment. I really fretted so I decided to go to the Registrar to see if I could pay in installments. She went back to check her records and then told me that my tuition had already been paid! I kept spelling out my name because there was no way the family could have paid my tuition, especially in advance. But sure enough, it had been paid. Although I never really  knew, I feel it was my German Prof. Dr. Kremer, who had been through previous hard times as a German national and took pity upon a Jap kid who had no money. Yes, there is a Santa Claus out there.”

In recalling her campus friendships, she noted, “One especially, Hilde Jablonski Jacobs, who as a child left Nazi Germany via China, Japan and finally (made it to) the USA. Her parents could barely speak English, but they were so kind to me, as was Hilde. Once we had to move from one dorm to the other while at U of O, and because neither of us had much funds, we borrowed an old wheel barrow and pushed our belongs across campus, via wheel barrow….but we got moved.”

After graduating with her bachelor’s in biology, Yuka went on to earn two master’s degrees – one in nursing, from Yale University, and one in public health, from the University of Pittsburgh.