Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Hiroshi Kashiwagi Interview
Narrator: Hiroshi Kashiwagi
Interviewer: Alice Ito
Location: Klamath Falls, Oregon
Date: July 3, 2004
Densho ID: denshovh-khiroshi-02-0025

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AI: What kind of treatment did you get in L.A.? That would have been, what? 1947 or '48?

HK: Yeah, in L.A., it was better than being in Placer. Placer was a hotbed of racism after the war, when veterans started to come back early, early in 1945. You know, they were crippled or they were veterans, and they would be refused service at the stores, and there would be signs, "No Japs," and all that. So that, and they kind of paved the way so that by the time we came out, there were more, more, at least there were no signs. So it was a little better by that time, but in L.A., I mean, there are a lot of people, and you're anonymous. Even though you were Japanese, but there were other Asians. And yeah, it was easy. And then I was in Japantown, Little Tokyo, right above Atomic Cafe, famous Atomic Cafe. And we stayed in this hotel for a while, and my brother wanted to go fishing, and so he was determined to get on a boat, and fishing was not good at that time, and so he finally decided not to do that. And, and he, he got work in a market, produce market. And, but meanwhile, I was, I started LACC, and I, I worked so that I wouldn't have to spend the money I, the hard-earned money. And I worked at Bullock's for a couple of years, maybe more, three years, porter. Cheap wages. And then I also worked at the library as a page. I think, I don't know if I had two jobs, maybe not. And I was going to City, and then after a year and a half, I was out maybe a year, and then I transferred to UCLA, and I finished.

AI: And what was your major?

HK: Well, I was an English major to begin with, and then when I transferred to UCLA, I was an English major for one semester. And then I wasn't doing too well, lots of paper to write, and lots of reading to do, and the bus travel every day, one way was one hour, so I would have to spend two hours a day on the bus, and I'd try to read, do my reading on the bus, and then I'd fall asleep, so I decided, well, I better, if I wanted to graduate, and I thought it was important to graduate within the two years. So I transferred, or changed my major to Japanese or Oriental language, as they called it then. I don't know whether they call it, still call it that, but in a year-and-a-half, I finished all the requirements, because I had a, I could go into intermediate Japanese and advanced. So I took all the Oriental language courses and then I graduated, got my B.A., and the only person who came to my graduation -- and I was going to attend the ceremony, because I just wanted to experience it. And my mother was, she hardly cared, so she didn't come. She was, she thought I was wasting my time -- [laughs] -- going to school. And meanwhile, she was working at the fish cannery. And my brother was getting married or was married, and they didn't come. So my, the only person who, who saw me was my Chinese teacher. [Laughs] He says, "Oh, I didn't know you were graduating." [Laughs]

AI: And that was 1952?

HK: Yes. My father died in 1951, so while we, we were living in L.A., he died at Wiemar, and so we had to come up and take care of that.

AI: But he knew that you were going to be attending UCLA?

HK: Yeah, he knew, he knew, I'm sure he knew, but I don't know if I visited him when I was a student there. I used to take the bus and ride at night to visit him, and I made that trip several times. But... yeah.

AI: So then what did you do after graduation?

HK: Well, I graduated from UCLA and I looked for jobs, and as I told you, I applied at the Benihana Japanese company, and I was hired there, because I could read the, the memo that they offered me. And they said they would hire me, and, but then, I realized that I had to drive them around, I was their actual driver. And I have to go to the airport, to go after their big shots coming from Japan, and I thought, "Oh, I don't want to be doing that." [Laughs] So I didn't take that job, and there were other jobs that I would go for interviews, and not get it. This happened many times, "Well, gee, something's wrong here." And I'm sure they were checking back at my record, maybe. And civil service was not the place to apply. So I came home to Berkeley, because UCLA didn't have a graduate division in, in my field. So I came up to Berkeley, and then I talked to the advisors there, and they said, "Oh..." they didn't like the UCLA courses, and they, they told me I would have to repeat some of them. So I said, "If I'm gonna repeat the courses, I might as well take up something else." And I had a friend who died recently, Gompers Saijo, we would talk about art, he's a painter, and he, he said, "Well, why don't you take up Oriental art?" And so I switched my major to art history at Berkeley, and took some Oriental art and Renaissance and Greek, and I don't know if I took Roman art. But I did all that preliminary work, and then I was in the graduate division and I was doing my graduate work. And I was starting my thesis, and then my advisor took a sabbatical, and that gave me a chance to not work on my, my graduate degree, and I was doing theater, also, on campus, so I kind of dropped out. My thesis title was in the catalog, we used to have card catalogs, and it was there for years, because they would maintain it for about six years, and after that it's no good. And my friend would go there and look and say, "It's still there." [Laughs] I had a title for it. It was something to do with, I don't know, three centuries of Chinese art or something. But I...

<End Segment 25> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.