<Begin Segment 6>

SS: Were you always interested, then, in planes?

HW: In planes? Well, as a young man I knew that I could never get a job in the airplane industry, that I could never get a job in the oil industry. Those were off-limits, you know. And you couldn't get a job in teamster work because you couldn't join the teamster union. So, there were areas that you worked around. But after the war, I had a chance to try to go to work for Boeing, which I did, yeah.

SS: What was it like, though, when you were a youngster thinking that these areas, these fields, were off-limits? Was that, did that make you sad?

HW: Well, it's like teamsters, you know. If you didn't, if you weren't hired help then you could drive a truck. But if you were hired by somebody and it's covered by the union, why, then if you couldn't join the union then they couldn't keep you, you know, so they wouldn't hire you.

SS: But how about like aeronautics, which you'd been interested in, but you sort of assumed because you were Japanese American, that you wouldn't be hired.

HW: No, it wasn't an assumption, that was a fact. That was a fact. The only way you can get into aeronautics is to go to Japan or somethin' like that.

SS: Was that easy to swallow?

HW: Well, I think we were probably, it was, you might say, it was subdued. Not really swallowed, but subdued. Thinking there would be a better time ahead. Be patient and things will happen.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 1996 Densho. All Rights Reserved.