<Begin Segment 9>

BH: So regarding your schooling, you were put away before you had a chance to graduate?

KH: Uh-huh.

BH: So were you ever worried that your schooling will be jeopardized, that you might not graduate from high school?

KH: No. I just took it in stride, just wait to see what happened. And then later we were told that all the teachers were told to give us credit for the classes that we had taken. And we did have graduation. We missed graduation in Seattle, but the principals of each high school came to camp and we went to Area D. We were escorted with a guide, the ones who were graduating, and the parents were, accompanied us, and we walked over to Area D, and then it was a big assembly area. And all the schools, I think it was Franklin, Garfield, Lincoln and Broadway. I'm not sure whether, I'm, there must have been the Cleveland grads. Anyway, we, the principals in, our principal was Mr. Bennett, and he came with our class advisor, Margaret Walthew, and they also brought several of our graduating seniors. I remember Aristedis Phoutrides, and some of the girls. I don't remember the girls who came with them, but they came to our graduation and they were in the audience when we got our diplomas.

BH: So they still had support for you? They still had...

KH: Yes.

BH: I guess, then, there is the question, after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and you were in school with Japanese but also with white, did you notice any change?

KH: No, I did not, although when President Roosevelt made the announcement that we're gonna go to war with Japan, there was a lot of students, Caucasian students, who went to a different room to listen to the broadcast during the school hours. I don't think none of the Japanese students went. We stayed in, I stayed in study hall.

BH: But in spite of all that, they still maintained respect for you, they still maintained friendship, and they even came to the camps when it was time for graduation?

KH: Uh-huh. And then I heard later that at graduation that they had in Seattle, that the band left a space for each of the Japanese students who were in the band when they marched in. And then when they were -- well, the seniors don't play in the graduation, graduating band, but there were other Japanese in the lower classes. The, the seats were there for them in the band, empty seats.

TI: Can I ask a question? So when you had your graduation ceremony in camp, how many other graduating students were there?

KH: I don't remember. I don't remember from my area, Sono Matsuo Nakauchi, she was one of my grads, and Lenora Kadoguchi.

TI: Do you recall any of the speeches? Did they mention anything in regards of that you were in camp? Was there any sort of comments about that by any of the speakers?

KH: Gee, I don't remember that.

TI: Or how about your, like the other graduating seniors that weren't in camp, the Caucasians, any conversations that you had in --

KH: Well, we, they have a dance afterwards, and we danced with them. I remember dancing with Aristides, 'cause he was quite tall and here little short me. [Laughs]

TI: And during that, did they say anything in terms of why you were there?

KH: No, no. And you know, Aristides Phoutrides really made a name for himself during the war.

TI: How so? How did he make a name for himself?

KH: He was quartermaster on a navy ship, and it came out recently in the "Broadway Whims," the alumni news. You want a copy of that?

TI: No, it's just, this is the first time I've heard, so the Seattle School District had this special ceremony for all the graduating seniors. This is the first time I've heard about this.

KH: Oh, really?

TI: Yeah, so this is interesting.

KH: Yeah, we were marched over, and Sono Matsuo was in my area, so I remember going over with her.

TI: And anybody from the school district, like the superintendent or anything like that? Who was the most prominent person? Were the principals the most prominent?

KH: Well, to me, I remember Mr. Bennett, L.P. Bennett.

BH: He was the principal for Broadway school?

KH: He was principal for Broadway High School.

BH: So I take it the principals for Franklin, Cleveland, the other schools, they were --

KH: They were all there, uh-huh.

TI: That's pretty extraordinary. I didn't --

KH: To give us our diplomas?

TI: Yeah, for that type of recognition. A lot of cities it wasn't like that.

KH: Uh-huh. And you know, they even gave me the Rena B. Raymond award at that ceremony.

BH: And that was the one that you had run for.

KH: Uh-huh.

TI: And again, this was something that the students voted for?

KH: Yes. So to me, there was no prejudice as such, 'cause if they were going to, there would be prejudice, they would have voted for Mary Davis.

TI: Well, not only that, but then the acknowledgement in terms of, when they had their own ceremony, they left the seats kind of empty.

KH: For the band, yes.

TI: So it was almost like in protest, do you think, or what do you think? Why did they do that?

KH: Because you weren't there. They knew that it was not your fault that you weren't there. You were in camp, interned. They said that the schools were just devastated. I remember a friend from Franklin High School, she said the next day the schools were just empty, you know, schools that had lots of Japanese.

TI: So did, were there a lot of tearful sort of goodbyes at Broadway when the Japanese left, do you remember that?

KH: Well, we just went quietly, dropped out of school.

BH: Was it... it basically all happened to all the people at once, or was it you guys gradually trickled out of the school?

KH: No, it just happened at once. Everybody, most of us all were evacuated within, within a week or less.

BH: So the difference in the school must have been really outstanding.

KH: That had nothing to do with it.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2007 Densho. All Rights Reserved.