<Begin Segment 15>

AI: I recall that you were saying that as you got more deeply into your art school that you had some new experiences and met some new people. That opened up some different ideas to you.

FY: I met this Caucasian who was, oh, about twelve or thirteen years older than I was, and we were going to art school together. And he had a great deal of exposure, like traveling to Europe a lot, and we got to be good friend. And I listened to him a lot because he would explain how there are other countries and other worlds and other cultures and custom, and very interesting. Plus he, he explained about discrimination is not only with the Asian people but with Afro-Americans and women, and it goes on and on. And it, just the whole world opened up to me.

So I became, you might say, an activist. I got involved in the suffering of others and that wasn't a joy ride either because we had people who, who didn't like that either. The, many of the university students during the Vietnam War, they started a march, and it marched right into the freeway, and a huge contingent walking, protesting the Vietnam War. That was -- I had never seen such a large group participating. And it was very heartening. But there were other times where there were not as many support. But selfishly, looking at myself, I felt pretty good about what I was doing.

I came back into the community, and gradually the Nisei were gradually developing a little more confidence, not being ashamed of their heritage. But I was still very sad that they were not politically conscious, conscious of things that are happening outside of the community. The younger generation, of course, are much better now. They are becoming conscious.

AI: Well, I'd like to ask you more about your own consciousness. You were just starting to say that during art school, you met another student. And as you said, a world of ideas opened up to you.

FY: Yes.

AI: And was that in the late '40s, late 1940s?

FY: Yeah. Yes. Well, things like there was the persecution of, they called the Hollywood Ten, House Un-American Committee. And many of those people were well-known people. They, they were Academy Award winners, and I couldn't understand why they were being persecuted. That persecution also was in Seattle, where the professors at universities were being persecuted. And they called it a "Red Herring," that... and at the same time, I was learning myself, what is a "Red"? What's... I remember the first time I heard the word "Communism," and I thought that was some kind of a religious ritual, like I heard in Catholicism you have commune. But nonetheless, these people, some of these people that I've known personally, good people, and I can't -- I couldn't understand why they are being persecuted.

AI: What did you learn about this persecution?

FY: Well, it's... I think it made me feel -- personally, selfishly because I was such a minority as a resister -- it made me feel that I wasn't wrong to be a minority. And these people were a minority being persecuted. So I think above anything else, there's much more to be a citizen of a country than to just look at ourselves. We've got to -- if we want a healthy country, we've got to have healthier people and a healthy situation. At my age, now -- I'm almost seventy-eight -- I'm too tired to be active, but mentally, of course, I haven't forgotten. I think, I still believe that people are good yet. And someplace down the line, maybe this is wishful thinking, maybe a little Pollyanna, but I think eventually something will happen.

AI: Well, you were saying, then, about what was happening with the persecution of people who were good people, in the late '40s and then on into the 1950s, and that, of course, was the McCarthy Era. And what was going through your mind as you see -- in the 1950s, as you see these people being persecuted and things in the news?

FY: Well, I hate to sound pessimistic, but with the experience of the civil rights movement with Martin Luther King and many other things like prior to the McCarthy Era, they had the Cantwell and the Valdez and the HUAC (House Un-American Activities Committee) and persecuting people I felt were good people. I don't know. I have to reflect and say, "Is this all part of life, where you have things happening, and then it goes into the next stage?" And sometime they say an alcoholic, they have to hit the bottom before they start taking a upswing. I don't know. Maybe we as a country which been the most prosperous, the most democratic country in the world, maybe we have to go through certain stages ourselves. I don't know.

AI: Well, one of the stages we had was then also the Korean conflict, the Korean War --

FY: Absolutely, yes.

AI: -- came up also. And can you tell about what your thoughts were at that time.

FY: Yes. Our country were involved in a foreign war and the dissension that went on. And I just felt that we shouldn't be involved in it, just as much as the Vietnam War. I, I was a resister to the draft because of the, what I felt was a unfairness. Gradually I became more of a pacifist. I just don't believe in war. I know some discussion I've had was -- supposing someone should slap you on the face. You can just stand back and let that go? I don't know. I have no answer to that. I know my feeling is I wouldn't want to go out and hit somebody. I'm a pacifist in that sense. I'm not a religious pacifist. I believe, I believe in being a citizen of the world. I don't think we should have an alliance with just one group. We should have a... humanity. We should, we should be part of this humanity. I don't know if I'll ever see it, but I think if someone has some goal or dream of something like that, it makes life a lot more pleasant to live. You know, you suppose we could end this conversation, with, if there's any kind of a last statement, the, the type of thing I'm sure that Arabs and the people of the Muslim religion are going through is, is horrendous. Because we experienced that, too. We have to learn to understand that evil deed is not going to settle by another evil deed.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2001 Densho. All Rights Reserved.