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TI: Well, I'm curious, why would you move to Ellensburg?

MH: Because Dad lost everything, and if you know the Masudas, if you ever heard, they were prominent, he was a prominent lawyer here. But that family grew up in real poverty in Ellensburg, and they ran a restaurant and a hotel in the back, and that was the one time where Dad had to allow us to live in his business place, because he was just destitute by that time. He had me, and my brother, and my two sisters. The others had gone on, gotten married. So yeah, here I was college-age, so we moved to Ellensburg in this run-down, oh, really run-down hotel and restaurant, and the men who... in those days, so many men jumped on the freight trains and they traveled from one place to another. What do you call them anyway? They would walk up from the railroad up to the restaurant to eat, and the soot from the engine would blacken their faces, they'd be black and dirty, they'd come in to eat. There again, my dad fixed meals that he could sell cheap, and Mother and I stayed up nights making apple pie, and we lived there in poverty, just barely making ends meet. And at that time, I went to the Central Washington, but at that time it was a normal school. And you know what a normal school was?

TI: No, what was a normal school?

MH: Normal school preceded teacher's colleges, and you go to a normal school, you could get a license in two years to teach. But by the time I got there, it had changed to a teacher's college, but strictly a teacher's college. And in those days, you could go three years and get a teaching certificate. So I went the three years. In between, I came out to the University of Washington because when I first went to class at Central Washington, a Dr. Hinch, the English teacher, looked at me and he said, "What are you? What kind of name is this? What are you? Chinese, Filipino, what?" I said, "I'm Japanese American."

TI: And I'm sorry, who was this? Dr. Finch, you said?

MH: Dr. Hinch.

TI: Dr. Hinch. Who was this?

MH: And he was the, my English teacher, the English teacher --

TI: At Central Washington?

MH: At Central Washington. And I said, "Oh, I'm Japanese American, and my name is Ota, not Otto." And he said, "Well, what are you doing here?" "I, I want an education." "For what?" And I said, "Because I want to become a teacher." "Get right out. You're never gonna get a job. Go someplace else." Just like that. It was very blunt. Told me to get out, go someplace else. "You'll never get a teaching job. Nobody's gonna hire you." Well, I couldn't stand up. My legs gave out underneath. If, even if I tried to stand, I guess that's what you call when you're in shock. I was so, so much in shock, I didn't even cry. And then I tried to stand up, and my legs wouldn't hold me, so I had to sit back down. Class was over and the kids left, and then I tried again to stand up and I couldn't. And then two girls, one very tall and one very short came up and said, "Come on. Dr. Hinch does that all the time. Come on, let's go." They lifted me out of my seat and helped me get up. But I guess that's what you call, you know, when you're in shock. [Laughs]

TI: Well, had that ever happened to you before?

MH: No.

TI: So it was very traumatic, it was very...

MH: Yeah, it was terrible. Must have been, must have really been a shock to me to have him say that to me, blatantly, and saying, "Get out. You don't belong here. You're never gonna get a job as a teacher."

TI: Were you the only non-white student?

MH: Yes. Yes, I was, and I had, they gave us an English test, and I passed it with flying colors, but Dr. Hinch couldn't believe it. So in those days, you either got into the dumbbell class, or you got into the regular. He put me in the dumbbell class. [Laughs] One of the questions he asked was, "Who wrote the Shadows on the Rock?" I raised my hand, he glared at me, and I said, "Willa Cather." "What? You read the book?" "Yes, sir." He was shocked. He was shocked to think that a Japanese girl who looks the way she does reads English. And so that's the way it started, but in time, I got his respect, and he asked me to be on the school paper, which I didn't do. I didn't want to.

TI: Well, it must have taken a huge amount of courage to go back that second day, after he, he told you not to, to be in this class.

MH: Well, it did. It took those two girls to get me back, the ones that helped me, and they were lifelong, they're both gone, but Dorothy and Lois. They're the ones that really kept me in school. And 'course, I didn't get invited to the dances or any of the social things, but they did want me to help decorate the hall for the dances and stuff, and I'd go and decorate the halls and stuff for them.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.