<Begin Segment 28>

BH: So how long were you in Japan for?

KH: I was in Japan sixteen months.

BH: And while you were there, you mentioned that Grandpa Joe was given the offer to buy, buy into a home, is that right?

KH: Well, he had a choice of moving the family into Washington Heights...

BH: Which is in Japan?

KH: Yes, it's a military housing area, it's outside of Meguro, or move into a Japanese home. And he thought about that, because he had a friend who wanted him to move into the Japanese home so they could run, like, a casino out of the home, and I was not for that. I said no. I didn't want to live out in the Japanese community because I felt that there would be prejudice. The reason why I say that is because I remember back in 1933 when my mother took us to Japan, we visited a Japanese school, and my brother Bako got up and gave a talk in English, and he, he talked about George Washington chopping down the cherry tree and being honest about. And he, he gave it in English to the Japanese assembly of students, and after we finished visiting the Japanese school -- this is back in 1933 -- we left the school grounds when school let out, and we had to walk back to this farmhouse that we were, my mother was staying, in Ibusuki. All of a sudden, a group of students came and pelted us with dried cow dung. It was cultural prejudice, and I, and I remembered that when Joe was trying to make the decision about taking a Japanese home verus living on the military housing, and I decided on military housing.

TI: So, that's interesting. So when you say cultural, sort of, discrimination, I mean, they didn't like you because you were Americans?

KH: American Japanese.

TI: And did they think you were, they looked down at you because you were Americans and not pure Japanese?

KH: Well, this is 1933. You know, the Japanese are very prejudicial, and I found that out more afterwards when we visited Japan the second time and ran into Jin-san, he was a Korean potter, very well-known. But he said that he lived in a Korean community during the war, and they were very prejudiced by the Japanese. And I found out more because I met a Korean girl, she lives in Bellingham. Her husband is, was consul general, he was in Korea, Japan, Venezuela, Austria, all over, London. And she's telling me these stories of the prejudice that she ran into as a Korean.

TI: So he was the consul general for Korea?

KH: For U.S.

TI: For the U.S.?

KH: Yes. And she was his wife.

TI: Well, how about during this postwar? So during the occupation, the Japanese for the most part were pretty devastated.

KH: Yes, but...

TI: As a Japanese American, you were much better off.

KH: Yes, and we're driving this American jeep and American car.

TI: Did you still feel the Japanese looked down at you during this period?

BH: Or resented your being there?

KH: I think the fact that we were more materialistic than they were. You know, they didn't have the things. And Joe has a cousin who was consul general in Taiwan, Formosa, and we would go visit his home. The mother and the father and a daughter and a, the eldest son, they were very nice to us. They had another son who would never come out when we came to visit. He didn't like us.

BH: So just prejudice towards Japanese Americans?

KH: Japanese American.

BH: And then while you were in Japan, what was Joe's experience? What was he doing in Japan?

KH: He was there as a lieutenant, and he was in CIA, he had to investigate all these Japanese politicians and board people. He didn't like that, so he got out of the army and worked for the historical section doing monographs.

BH: And so when he got out of the army, that's when you moved back to the United States.

KH: Uh-huh. That's where he worked for... SRS? And then we stayed there until we thought we had enough money for him to go back to school.

BH: And so you came back to the United States, and why did you, why did you decide to come back? You were, oh, you talked about prejudice, and you wanted to raise your kids in a healthier environment.

KH: Yeah, and then he was accepted at University of Chicago for a doctorate in mathematics. So we went to Chicago and when he went to Chicago, he found out that his background in mathematics at the University of Montana was very weak. He didn't have some of the courses that was prerequisite to be a math doctoral candidate at University of Chicago. So he was taking couple of math courses at University of Chicago as a, with the undergraduates, and then found out how long it would take him to get a PhD at University of Chicago. So we stayed the year to get his Illinois residency, and then he transferred to University of Illinois, down in Urbana.

<End Segment 28> - Copyright © 2007 Densho. All Rights Reserved.