<Begin Segment 24>

TI: So earlier you mentioned that the first two years you were in journalism classes, but then after two years you decided to switch majors.

HH: Yes.

TI: And why don't you talk about that.

HH: Well, about 1937 or '38, possibly around there, somewhere around that time, there were some problems, troubles, around Manchuria and everything else, which the Japanese soldiers... well, in those days, I think they had the separate, it was not China, it was Manchuria. They call it Manchuria, and they had a Japanese, at the time, it's closer to Korea, Japan did have as a colony, I guess, Korea and Taiwan area. Japan held those two countries for fifty years, and they had Japanese language and everything else in both places. So Manchuria was next to China, so they had, I think they were Japanese former soldiers or whatever, they were able to get the farming, farm area in Manchuria. And so when, this is the reason why Japan was able to go into China very easily.

TI: Is this what was called the "Manchurian Incident"?

HH: Incident, yes.

TI: Okay, so this happened, yeah, in '37, around then, '38, I think.

HH: Yes.

TI: And so you were a journalism student, you heard about this, was this the reason why you switched majors?

HH: Yes. I decided that even if I got my major in journalism, I would probably be asked, "Do you know anything about the Far East?" Japan, China and all that, and so I wasn't too versed in Japanese history and all that, politics and such. And so that's the reason why I decided to switch to Far Eastern Studies under George Taylor. I think George Taylor, Dr. George Taylor was, just happened to come out and he established a Far Eastern institute at the University of Washington, so I switched to political science and a minor in journalism.

<End Segment 24> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.