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AI: Well, now, at the same time, you're continuing on this grueling schedule, and you're completing your coursework at the university. And I recall in one of your writings that one of your professors came right out and told you that he thought you should reconsider and switch to a different major.

BH: Yes.

AI: And that he did not believe you would ever be hired by a major newspaper. And, what was your reaction when you heard that?

BH: Well, there were three Asian Americans in my journalism class, which was about thirty, thirty-five people. And one of them was Chinese American, a fellow named Edwin Luke, who was a brother of Keye Luke, the movie actor. And the other fellow was Shin Kobayashi. I, I was much closer to Eddie Luke than to Shin. But I know Shin was called in the, the same way I was. I don't know about Eddie Luke. But the professor wanted to know why I wanted to take journalism. And I said, "Looks like it's an interesting way to make a living, and I like it." And that's when he said, "Well, you know, we don't like prejudice and discrimination, but you know it exists. And I can tell you that no American publisher is gonna ever hire you." And I had known that, but it was something of a disappointment to have my professor say that to me. But I, I said, "To hell with that. Why, I'm going to go ahead with this and do what I can."

Eddie never did get a good job on a newspaper, Eddie Luke. He -- his brother was quite well-known in Hollywood, and his brother helped Eddie get a job as a printer -- not as a journalist, but a printer -- on The Hollywood Reporter, an industry newspaper. And Shin went to Japan, and I think he was working for Domei, the news agency Domei. And he was -- I heard that he died in one of the fire bombings of Tokyo. When a hundred thousand people were killed overnight or something like that.

AI: So this is very interesting to me that you had -- you said that you had known of the prejudice and the likelihood that you would face discrimination in a journalism career. And then on top of that, your professor stated it outright.

BH: Yes.

AI: And yet you decided that you were going to proceed anyway.

BH: Yeah.

AI: What, what was it in you that made you make that decision?

BH: Probably inertia. [Laughs] I didn't know what I, what else I wanted to be. I wasn't smart enough to be an engineer. I didn't particularly like business. A lot of the Japanese Americans were going into business. Some of them were going into pharmacy. And I had no aptitude for anything like that. And so I must have said to myself, "Well, what the hell? Might as well go and see what happens."

AI: So now as you were completing your university work and graduating, I imagine as any other graduate -- senior would do, you would start looking for jobs.

BH: Yes.

AI: What did you face then? What did you find as you were applying for work?

BH: Well, this was 1937. And there were not very many jobs for anybody. And out of our graduating class of thirty or thirty-five at the University of Washington, maybe one-third found media jobs. One fellow went to work for a post office. Another became a seaman and went to sea. One fellow went into radio work, a very good friend of mine. And some of the girls who were in the class never did go into journalism. So in that respect, jobs were very hard to find. And, I guess I recognized early on that there wasn't much point in my going around with my diploma in hand and look for a job.

Now, a new Japanese American daily was being started up in Los Angeles. And I was invited to come down and be the editor of the English section. I never took that offer seriously. I didn't want to go down to be in Little Tokyo and working on a very shaky Japanese American paper. And about that time, a fellow named Tad Kimura, who was the English secretary to the Japanese Consulate in Seattle, told me he was quitting to go to Japan and study, and he recommended that I go and apply for the job. So I did, and they hired me. And my function was primarily to handle the English correspondence of the consul general. So I was in effect a male secretary there.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2001 Densho. All Rights Reserved.