<Begin Segment 27>

TI: So I wanted to then ask, so here you are, graduating with a degree in political science with a minor in journalism. What, what did you think your career was going to be at this point? What did you want to do?

HH: Well, that's what I figured, that if I wanted to stay in journalism, be a newspaper editor or such, maybe it would be better for me to change my major into political science so that I could... and also stay with the journalism so that... I thought at the time, when there were some conflicts going on, and even in China and Korea, that, and Bill Hosokawa being in Singapore, that I thought that maybe I might be able to be employed by the AP and the national media in Japan. I mean, not in Japan itself, but Japanese, Asian area, that I better learn more about the politics and all that.

TI: So it sounds like what you were interested in is being like an international correspondent or a national wire service, something like that.

HH: Yes, possibility.

TI: And that would be a good match. Okay. Going from this larger international, national, I kind of wanted to go right before the war started. I'm curious about, in terms of the community, in terms of other community newspapers, you're still working for the Courier.

HH: Yes.

TI: What other community newspapers were there right before the war? Like the North American Post was one...

HH: Yes, and then the Great Northern, I think, but they were both Japanese-language. North American Post, or whatever it was, anyway, the two newspaper daily, but just about one page on the back page was English. And, but the main English-only paper was the Courier.

TI: And so I just wanted to get a sense, so you had the, the two Japanese ones and the Courier. Did, were you viewed as competitors, did you guys all fight for the same advertising dollars, or was it like different, different markets? I'm just curious how that worked.

HH: No, I think it went to the same advertisers in the community. So in a sense, there was competition in a way, but really, I don't think it was a case of each one fighting each other, but they must have been, because they were all going to the same firms for advertising.

TI: Yeah, I was always kind of curious, because that was kind of the main media for the community, was these newspapers. And so that's why I'm always kind of surprised by how many there were and how thriving... to have a daily, or two daily Japanese-language publications and then one English, but it was weekly, so it kind of says to me that in terms of the population of... and it makes sense; the Isseis were spending more money, so those Japanese dailies were probably more lucrative or more business...

HH: Yes, and besides that, they were already established when Jimmy came into the market in 1928.

<End Segment 27> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.