<Begin Segment 14>

TI: I want to talk, earlier you talked about your father getting involved with things like the TB association. But he was also involved in other organizations, too, in particular, the PTA. Can you tell me a little bit about the PTA in Thomas and what that was?

MY: Well, I don't know how it started, but I know that this friend, she was getting me rides to the museum meetings and things, different parts of the county and this and that. And then she called me one day and she said, "Have you got a picture of your dad?" And I says, "Yeah, lots of 'em." And she says, "Well, I got this article for the 100th anniversary of the Washington State PTA, and Stan helped me get a picture. But," she said, "I want a picture of your dad." And I said, "Yeah, so," I said, "what happened?" And she says, "Well," she says, "there was this thing that said something about you making a remark to the teacher that why weren't you given notices for PTA meetings." I distinctly remember those times, you know, you just felt like you were left out. Because all these hakujin kids were getting the monthly notice to take home. So she walked right by me, you know. And so I finally, I guess I opened my big mouth and she says, "Because Japanese parents don't read and write English." And I said, "Well, my father does." And so then the Washington State PTA acknowledged him as the first and only Japanese man who was president of the PTA.

TI: Oh, so this is interesting. Let me make sure I understand this. So when you were back as a student, you noticed that the Caucasian students would bring home these notices for PTA meetings, but the Japanese kids didn't. And so when you asked about that, the response from your teacher was, "Well, Japanese parents don't..."

MY: Yeah.

TI: And so when you spoke up, what did your father do? Because he became, you said, the first male PTA president (in Washington state), was this the president of the regular PTA, or was it a separate --

MY: It was a Japanese. (Narr. note: The Japanese PTA started in 1928. Out of curiosity, I called the National PTA and was told the Japanese American PTA is the only Japanese American PTA group with the National PTA.)

TI: So your father helped form a new PTA for the Japanese parents?

MY: Uh-huh.

TI: And so this was a way for the group to, the parents to become informed about what was happening.

MY: Yeah, so they would exchange programs every month, you know. And you know how Japanese are, when they go out to do something, they were gung ho, refreshments and entertainment and all that. Well, hakujin usually didn't do that. So then when she brought me a copy of the program, then I thought, "Well, gee whiz." So then I took pictures and sent 'em to my mom and my brothers and they says, "Holy cow." [Laughs] And so almost weekly, or monthly, they would have Thomas news in the paper. And there's articles about the beginning of the Japanese PTA group and what kind of programs they exchanged and everything like that. (Around 1929 they sent Miss Nellie Smith, school teacher, to Japan on a trip.)

TI: Okay, so the regular, I mean, kind of, the PTA with Caucasians, and then you had PTA Japanese, they would, I guess, share programs or exchange programs. And I think what I heard was when the Japanese did it, they had a lot more refreshments and things.

MY: Uh-huh.

TI: And going back to it, so this was a fully sanctioned PTA, and your dad was at one point the president, so that meant that he was the very first male or man to run a PTA.

MY: Yeah, so then I got curious, and I called the national PTA. And a lady answered, and she says, "Oh, she says, "well," she says, "why don't you call me back?" she said, "I'll see if I can find out anything." So I called her back, and she says, "Well," she says, "I haven't been able to really dig down deep into this article, this questions you're asking, but," she says, "as far as I can determine with what I've gone through," she says, "there's no other Japanese American PTA group in the whole United States." So I thought, "Well, gosh almighty, it must have taken something for him to be that concerned about the kids that the PTA should be there." And so I tell the kids and my brothers, said, "Well, Dad could really write English and understand, so he was a good go-between."

TI: And so when your father would take these kind of roles, kind of coordinating or leadership roles, how did that make you feel?

MY: Well, I didn't, I thought it was natural, you know. I didn't give it any more than that, that was a natural thing. So it doesn't bother me that much when somebody wants to do something or get something organized. In fact, I've got a piece of the Great Wall of China, you know. And that was given to me in 1932, and this guy, his family lived across the street from us, and he would come home on leave and everything. So I don't really remember that much about it, but he says, "You were just a little kid, huh?" And I says, "Well, it wasn't my fault," and laugh about it. So then after we came back and everything, all of a sudden somebody said, "Well, that's Les Hanvey." And I said, "Les Hanvey?" I says, "He's the one that gave me a piece of the China wall." And then I got his address, so I wrote to him and I apologized to him because I had lost it. Because I had put it with a bunch of my costume jewelry and stuff and put it upstairs because Mom decided, well, she'd just take all the stuff we couldn't take and put it upstairs, and she put a latch on it and locked it up. But then, of course, you know, what the heck, they know we're not, or we can't come back. So whoever lived in the house stole it.

TI: And this was during the war that you did that.

MY: Yeah. So...

<End Segment 14> - Copyright (c) 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.