Interview 20517 – Caption Index: 48
What would you say is the difference between the zoo in Tokyo, and the new zoo you came to in Topeka?… Read More
What would you say is the difference between the zoo in Tokyo, and the new zoo you came to in Topeka?… Read More
Zookeeper. Uh, no. Just go back to immigration service. Gary Clarke had a brilliant idea of creating a temporary new zoo job title. Zoo management trainee. Which was another keeper title, but then he somehow came up with a scheme. Went to the labor department, labor department, okay look at… Read More
Immigration service said well, labor department okayed it, so you can have a green card. Not a citizenship yet, but a green card, with which you can stay in this country indefinitely. So that’s how it started, January 1970. I arrived in LA 2nd of July 1969, in January 1970,… Read More
Another person who imported me, quote unquote, imported me, a reptile dealer, whose name was Ray Folsom. And on the west coast in California. And I was a house guest, lived in his guest room for a few months. It was the summer of 1969. July 2nd, that’s the day… Read More
Went to Topeka, Kansas. Which was a very dramatic change. And we went to immigration services. Immigration service says no. You’re not really a person needed in this country. Just go to the labor department. Read More
You go to the labor department, labor department says well what’s the job?… Read More
How did that occur?… Read More
At that time, the culture of Japan, which may seem so fascinating to so many people, really got to me. It’s a highly hierarchical culture. You are not an individual person. You are not Ken. It’s just a little part of the whole system. So it just got to me. Read More
Number one was Marvin Jones who wrote to something like 54 zoo directors and said hey, this guy’s coming to the US, would you help him out?… Read More
Mm-hmm. Read More
Can you tell us the genesis, how did you go from working for the Zoo Society in Tokyo to coming to the United States?… Read More
Watched zoo operation from the outside, unfortunately. Just learning what to do, and what not to do, and so forth. And I read quite a bit. Read More
You had that job, and ultimately though, you left that job?… Read More
And is that when you traveled to the United States?… Read More
It was easy to, at that time, it was easy to get into Tokyo’s Zoological Society, because it was a support organization, not the operator of the zoo. Now it is, but not that time. Read More
While you were working for the Zoo Society, were you learning anything about the zoo profession, and were there any lessons there that you took away from this job?… Read More
Was that in your mind?… Read More
I wanted to, yes. Although it didn’t work that way, because right after graduation, went to Tokyo, and contracted tuberculosis. So ended up for two years in a sanatorium in the outskirts of Tokyo, and by the time I finally got out, having tuberculosis is almost like an ex-con in… Read More
How did you get the job with the Zoo Society?… Read More
Generalized large collection, from herbs, to birds, to mammals, all the basic crowd-pleasers were there. Elephants, great apes, large cats, bears. So, it was almost heavenly. Read More