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JY: But you were asking about my schooling. That part there, maybe I should go back to grade school to my, some of the ideas or thoughts of what I had when I was in grade school. Because my best subject was civics and history and geography. Grammar, math, was, I was terrible. So when it comes to Constitutional rights, I knew it backwards and forward. I knew Gettysburg Address, the Preambles and all that, I used to, I knew all. So at the grade school, I see these Caucasian people come in when the voting time they go in behind the canvas curtain, put their mark on the ballot, and I says, "One of these days, I be that point where I'll be twenty-one. I can register to vote." Says, "Boy, that'd be the day." That's one thing I look forward to, the day I be twenty-one and I can vote. Being in that civics class that's all they teach about, government.

And I always had that back of my mind. So went to grade school then went onto high school, and went to trade school, a carpenter class. And this is before the war, the union are very, very powerful. The school was -- so far, so basically in the background run by the union. Union controlled how many carpenters, how many plumbers and this and that, and what nationality. Especially sheet metal shop, just no blacks, no yellow, no nothing. Plumbing shop same thing. Electrical shop same thing. With carpenter shop, our teacher Arthur Morgan, he was more broadminded, so I signed up for his class because I always want to be a carpenter since I was a youngster. So I signed up and talk to Mr. Morgan and he says, "Well, when you get out of school, I don't think I can help you." I said, "I'll just do my, the best I can, but when I get to that point, I can just get to the point..." He says, "Well, I'll do everything I can to teach you what I can teach you. It's up to you to learn what you want to learn." So I graduate from school, and he was one of the, my mentor-type of deal, person that really helped me, you know, even though I was Japanese. I know I can get a job -- he know I couldn't get a job.

So when I graduate high school in '41, my classmate, they were all Caucasian people, kids, one Italian, one... it's a Lithuanian boy. Anyway, they got a job as a carpenter right off the bat, no problem. So I went to union hall myself, and asked for a card, and they just give me, he says, "We know SOBs like you, we don't let you in." Because the Bylaw state that no Asian people allowed in the carpenter's union. So, I guess so.

So meantime, like I said, I was gonna' go, keep on going to school so I don't have to work as a carpenter. So I just kind of forgot about that. But I stayed on the farm, and if I was going to stay on the farm I wished I could be a carpenter, work as a carpenter, but my dad says, "Well, you better stay on the farm and help us out temporarily, until we get over this hump." So the war broke out, so that was the end of that dream of being a carpenter. So the experience that I learned being a carpenter... I did a lot more than just carpenter work. Morgan, he really taught me different thing -- management, how to work with people, how to understand people, and to trust people. And that's the biggest thing. He says, "You have to understand people, and trust people. If you trust people, the job will go easy." And I always remember that.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.