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AI: Well, moving to your high school years...

BH: Yes.

AI: ...you attended Garfield High School in Seattle.

BH: I did.

AI: And I was wondering, for many kids, high school years are a time that you, one begins thinking of their future, your hopes...

BH: Yes.

AI: ...and your dreams. And I was wondering what things you were considering at that time for your future.

BH: Yeah. If we can go back just a bit, there were four of us Japanese Americans in my class at Washington grade school. And all the rest were Caucasians. I don't think there -- yeah, there was one black fellow. But, and we became pretty good friends, and all four of us went on to Garfield High School. I had no idea what I wanted to make as my life work. And I, I got pretty fair grades. I knew where my weaknesses were: math, science. And I did pretty well in history and English. And I thought at the time that perhaps I would like to be an engineer, but mathematics came very hard for me. I got by algebra all right, but by the time I got to geometry, why, they were leaving me in the dark.

And I was qualified to get out of Garfield in three and a half years. But I had a -- I was very much interested in football, and so I decided to go back for my last semester -- I was a mid-year student -- so I decided to go back to school in the fall so that I could play football. And because I had most of my credits, I was sort of killing time in the classroom, in the classes, and I took a course in journalism. And it was very interesting. I liked the work. I found that I had a knack for writing, and so I went on and I became sports editor of the Garfield High School Messenger. And I thought that would be as good a course to study at the university, so I went on.

AI: So really your interest in journalism stemmed from that time.

BH: Yes.

AI: Your last year in high school. Well, you had mentioned having been a part of the, the four Japanese Americans...

BH: Yes.

AI: ...in grade school, and what happened when you went to Garfield? Was there quite a bit, quite a difference in the racial composition of Garfield school then -- quite a few more people of Japanese ancestry?

BH: No, there were not very many Japanese Americans at Garfield. They were mostly at Franklin and Broadway. And I don't think there were more than about eight or ten Japanese Americans at Garfield at that time. There was a number of blacks, a number of Jewish Americans who came from the general district where we lived, and then there were the well-to-do kids from the Montlake area and the Madrona area. So it was a, quite a mixture of ethnic groups.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2001 Densho. All Rights Reserved.