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BF: And where do your two other brothers, where are they at?

GH: They're, one of 'em is the chief curator of the Japanese American National Museum.

BF: That's right. And his name?

GH: James.

BF: James.

GH: He was, he did a lot of administrative work in addition to being a professor of anthropology. He went to, he went to museum because he advised them what to go for. And he said, "You should get somebody trained in anthropology, museology, cultural training and so on, 'cause that's what you need. But you oughta get somebody that's a Sansei. And, and your first exhibit is on the Issei, and that's my parents. And I have a special concern for that. I don't want my parents to be data, data supplier for some guy's series. I want them to be the subject matter of the study. And stay the subject matter, not the object of somebody's tests of, using my parents just as data. So get somebody who treats people like human beings. [Laughs] And, but who's trained in this field, not like, for example, Egyptologists or classics people who are studying that civilization. They're going in more for, from the classics perspective. And anthropologist would be more suitable for getting the right kind of people, interviewers and so on." And so he, he sold them this package of ideas. And he bought it, said, "The board bought it and they're ready to go that way. But we couldn't find anybody to do it, so you gotta come." Says, "Well I'm retiring early, at sixty-two. The end of this year I'm retiring because I've been participating in Asian American theater, and, but, I've been doing it during my spare time and so on. When I'm practicing lines in the mornings, I get up earlier and I'm just saying it to myself, the different lines. I'm practicing like that. I wanna, I wanna put full time effort on Asian American theater. So I'm retiring three years early to do that 'cause they said, 'Here's the package. You release your position. We give you as though you retired at sixty-five. Give you full credit.' " So he took that. So he said, "I'm retiring but I've got, I've got this job, this position I'm going to fill in." And they came back some more. [Laughs] They still couldn't find anybody. So finally, he says, "Well, I'll tell you some other reason why I don't, I'm not available. I never wanted to work in -- I never wanted to live in Los Angeles. I'm a San Francisco guy." They feel the same way, each other. They have their prejudices. So he says, "I'll never live in Los Angeles. So that makes it out, you're located in Los Angeles."

And so, they finally worked out, I mean they were desperate so they had to work something out. And finally they met his main objections by hiring him part-time. Half-time so he could help get that system working. And going on Wednesday and staying through Saturday, because it's a volunteer's day, and it's important that he's around to find out who's volunteering and what, what training they need to pick up the pieces. And particularly they had, they made some good decisions about financing. They got a committee of millionaire Niseis to become the core of the committee. But they didn't know beans about the theory he was telling him about, telling them about. So he had to work on them [Laughs] and get them aboard that way, too. And so he comes back Sunday morning sometime. And he had a very good close friend who, who unfortunately divorced. And he stayed on at San Francisco, but she went on and got on the museum staff. And she was one of those working hard to get him, 'cause she's worked with him on all kinds of projects and felt that he would be useful to the museum. And finally they worked out a half-time position. And so he'd go down Wednesdays, come back Sundays, until he had a heart attack. [Laughs]

BF: Oh.

GH: He wasn't, he was not recovering. And his wife finally said, "I'm going with you. We're going over to see your physician and get checked, 'cause there's, now something wrong here." And the guy put him on a treadmill, and going to test for data first. And after a couple minutes he collapsed. And he didn't even wait. He checked and he found out what his readings were and so on, and he just did -- what do they call it when they have the balloon system?

BF: Angioplasty.

GH: Angioplasty. And he was 97 percent closure. [Laughs] And so that opened it up. And then after about a year he had to do it again. And since then he's been fine. But it shook him enough that he really changed his diet and follows it rigorously. That I can't do. I've had bypass. He told me he, he says it depends a lot on, he thinks it depends a lot on who your doctor is. And this guy is a specialist, angioplasty. So he goes to that first off, you see.

BF: The method of choice. Wow. What about your other brother -- ? 'Cause I don't wanna exclude him.

GH: He was in, he was in a field, behavioral -- philosophy, but behavioral philosophy. And so...

BF: And what's his name?

GH: Edward.

BF: Edward.

GH: Yeah. And he was teaching at the State University of New York, in the -- SUNY, State University of New York, and initials, SUNY -- at New Paltz, which is near Poughkeepsie. And teaching in the behavioral sciences, general course. And used to teach, you know, 1000 students, lecturing and so on. He was pretty good at that. And he had a good philosophical background for the stuff that they wanted to get the students to think about. And then he got hired by State Department to come in and help with South American program that they wanted to introduce into the field, in Ecuador. So he went there for a couple year. And they wanted him to stay on, so he asked for an addition. And finally at the fifth year or thereabouts, he, they said, "Make up your mind. You gonna be the government or come back, 'cause we got, we got to, we can't just keep this position on a temporary. We got to find a good guy to replace you, otherwise we're just filling in with odds and ends."

BF: Uh-huh.

GH: And so he then realized that he couldn't afford to come back down to that university's level. So he stayed on and he retired as one of the senior, I don't know what they have the grades.

BF: Right.

GH: He was, yeah, he was down, like a director of programs and so on. And he's retired now in the wine country.

BF: And your sister, you said, was, is a charge nurse. Is that in the Seattle area?

GH: Yeah, she, yeah. She was long time with the Group Health, and became charge nurse of, you know -- if you're recovering from heart and so on, you have to, you only have about seven patients you're looking after 'cause you got to monitor them very carefully, closely. So she was doing that sort of thing and helping with individual doctors, maintaining their offices, 'cause many of them had private patients, too. They squeezed it in. And so she worked, worked in those areas 'til she retired.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 1999 Densho. All Rights Reserved.