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AI: Well, I did want to move on a bit here and bring us back to the point where you had graduated. And you had mentioned that you had turned down the offer of the job in Los Angeles. You did receive the job with the Japanese consul...

BH: Yes.

AI: ...here in Seattle and were assisting the consul. And then I think shortly after that, was it, that you learned of the possibility of the job in Singapore?

BH: Yes.

AI: Perhaps you could tell us a little bit about that and how you came to take that job.

BH: Yeah. Well, I heard about that job through the consulate. Somehow they had information that this man, Shohei Nagao, was planning to start up an English language newspaper in Singapore. He was publisher of a Japanese language daily, and he wanted to expand. And he was looking for someone with American newspaper training. Papers in Singapore were on the British style, which meant that the classified ads were on page one, and the writing was quite British, and he wanted to try and start a, an English -- American-style, English language paper that would appeal to Britishers, Indians, English-speaking Chinese and others.

And I had no idea where Singapore was. I had no knowledge at all about what things were like there, but I figured there was nothing to be lost in accepting a job like that, and so I told him I would come. And he sent my boat fare, and I headed off to the Far East. First time I'd been in the Far East.

AI: Now, before we continue on with that, in-between here you also got married.

BH: Yes.

AI: Please tell us a little about how you met your wife and about getting married.

BH: Well, there was some social contact between Japanese Americans in the various communities: Tacoma, Portland, Yakima, Spokane, Seattle. And the JACL were in, one sense was a matrimonial agency type thing. You went there to meet some, some nice girls. And the basketball tournaments were pretty much the same thing. And I was on a team that went down to Portland to play, and I met a girl named Alice Miyake, M-i-y-a-k-e. And she attracted me, and eventually she made the mistake of marrying me.

We, I was not married at the time this offer came from Singapore. And I talked it over with her, and I said, "Look, we've got this choice. You can get -- you can marry me and go with me. I don't know what it's like out there. It may be a rough deal. Or we can postpone the, the wedding, and you'll wait for me until I come back in two or three years. Or we can just forget the whole thing." And she made the mistake of saying, "I'll marry you." [Smiles]

AI: And that was in 1938.

BH: Yes.

AI: So then the two of you then went together to Singapore.

BH: Yes. So it was a kind of an overseas honeymoon for us.

AI: Now, in some other reading I've done, I got the impression from at least one essayist that in the 1930s, some Nisei were considering work in Asia, perhaps in Singapore or Shanghai, also in some cases Manchuria, as another place where they might face less racial discrimination. Did that -- had that occurred to you at all?

BH: Well, no. I had never thought of going to seek my fortune in Asia, although it's true. A good many very enterprising and able Nisei went off to Japan. And some of them went to Manchuria to work for the South Manchurian Railroad. There were jobs -- Domei, for example, had five or six Nisei working for them, Domei News Agency.

AI: And so when you got to Singapore, did you and your wife become part of a small group of Americans in that area? Did you have anyone to socialize with?

BH: Well, we had an American consul general in Singapore. And of course, I registered there as an American citizen. I don't recall that I had any close friends among the Americans there. I made close friends with a Eurasian fellow who was part English and part Malay, I think. Very nice guy. And we had some friends among the Japanese colony. And I had some Chinese friends. But I don't recall that we made any great effort to integrate ourselves into the American colony.

AI: I'm wondering what kinds of reactions you received, being a journalist who was an American of Asian ancestry.

BH: Yes.

AI: Specifically Japanese ancestry.

BH: Yeah, I'm sure the British secret police were very much interested. Here was this guy with a Japanese name working for a Japanese-owned newspaper carrying an American passport. What the hell's going on? And I'm sure they were watching me. But I stayed pretty much out of trouble.

AI: So you didn't really have any overtly negative reactions...

BH: No.

AI: ...that, that you could trace to that, to your --

BH: No. My ethnic background and nationality never really became an issue there.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2001 Densho. All Rights Reserved.