Over their first summer in Grinnell, the four Nisei students lived across the city of Grinnell.

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As bank accounts of their families were frozen, Nisei students worked and saved money before the start of the school year. Dean Shelton Beatty helped organize summer employment awards and described the difficulties of finding the students such positions due to anti-Japanese sentiment in a letter to a colleague on the West Coast.

"We have some difficulty in finding satisfactory summer employment because no local businesses will accept employees of Japanese descent and because our own service staff will not work with them.

The only places that we have been successful in finding summer employment for our Japanese-Americans are in faculty homes and faculty offices"

Although Akiko and Barbara spent the summer earning their room and board by working home of Dr. Henry Conard, the remaining two Nisei students found alternative work opportunities in the town. William and Hisaji de-tasseled corn at the DeKalb Hybrid Corn Company for 25 cents an hour.

Student Reactions
No Nisei students documented explicit hostility from fellow Grinnell students over their first summer. In a report back to Joseph Conard and the organizers of the Nisei students, Dean of the Chapel John Scott Everton noted some troubles with other students, writing, “There are a few students who may make it a little difficult, but on the whole the attitude is friendly.”
Faculty and Staff Reactions
Reactions from staff and faculty of the college were similarly largely positive. Dean Everton wrote, “There are some faculty members who are not too sympathetic, but I feel sure that all of them will be very fair in their treatment of Japanese students." Dean Beatty described the similar positions of the college staff, noting, “We have had to dismiss one of our service employees because she announced that she would not work with a Japanese person ... of course, [we have] done all we can to educate other members of our staff.”
Local Reactions
Unfortunately, Nisei student experiences in the town of Grinnell were harsh due to wartime racism. Barbara shared, “I had a few rocks thrown at me, but we survived." William similarly described moments of uncertainty within the town, learning which businesses would not serve Japanese individuals and which days to avoid farmers with “a more menacing view of the Japanese." The College administration was similarly aware of these local tensions. In a message to a counselor neighboring school Drake University, Dean Beatty wrote, “We have not yet been able to win the understanding of local citizens in this matter."

Responses to Nisei Students