<Begin Segment 23>

MN: Now, you weren't able to return to the United States until 1957, and why is that?

FH: Because I was conscripted. I was drafted into the Japanese army. Because of the fact that I had the Japanese citizenship, going to school and so forth, I had to be adopted into the parents' family registry, and so I got the Japanese nationality. That's why the government took me to the Japanese army.

MN: And how were you able to return to the United States?

FH: I was a minor at the time when my Japanese nationality was gained, not by myself, but through my guardian. And so there was a litigation, I think his name was Kasama, Shig Kasama's brother, who was living in the San Francisco area, who was the leading attorney, and worked for the cases like me. And through the Japanese government, to the effect that they took me to the Japanese army and so forth, even though it was not out of my own will, but because of the nationality at that time. I was a minor, and so it is not my will that I became the Japanese citizenship. And so the fact of the Japanese citizenship has been negated right there, would affect myself being drafted into the Japanese army. And so Japanese army had, legal interpretation is that Japanese government mistakenly took in somebody who does not even have the Japanese nationality, and so that was cleared. And so as far as United States side, I was U.S.-born, it's a fact, unchanging fact, and so who was born in this country, I still have my Japanese citizenship. Although because of the fact that I have never renunciated my Japanese, I mean, U.S. citizenship. So I'm still U.S. citizenship, that's why. I got the U.S. passport, went to the consulate in Kobe and got one time only passport to return to the United States. Very unusual case. That's how I came back to this country.

TI: So let me see if can recap this and see if I understand this. So part of the reason you couldn't come to the United States was because you served in the Japanese army.

FH: Uh-huh.

TI: And so this attorney established the fact that, in some ways, it was against your will. That you were...

FH: Minor.

TI: A minor when you were adopted and got your U.S., your Japanese citizenship, that then allowed the Japanese government to conscript you, or draft you. Once they established that that was against your will, then they established that, so that in theory, you should not have been in the Japanese army. So then it went back, so that got nullified, and the fact that you were born in Spokane, in the United States, established that you were a U.S. citizen.

FH: Correct.

TI: So that allowed you to come back to the United States.

FH: Correct.

TI: So this attorney had to kind of work through all the channels to establish this, but once it was established, then you could come back.

FH: Right, right.

TI: Okay, good.

FH: This Kasama, I think, he went to Chuo University, and so there was a Foreign Japanese Ministry and so forth, but he worked with him very closely on the Japanese side of the law and so forth.

TI: So the question I have for you is why go to all that bother? I mean, why did you want to come back to the United States?

MN: Well, my parents were all back here and my brothers and sisters were here and so I wanted to come back to the United States. As a matter of fact, when I graduated from Kyoto University, I was a employee of a very good company. It was a Sumitomo Metal Industries, one of the, you know, the conglomerate. But I didn't stay long, only for about half a year, I quit, 'cause I wanted to come back to this country. And didn't like the way that, you know, even in the Japanese corporate circle and so forth, it's so, it's like a family structure, which is good, but you know, no, hardly any freedom at all. So I quit only in about a half a year. And they said that, "I never seen a guy like you, graduating from the university, one of the top university, and then working for such a great company and then quit in about half a year." Said, "I'm gonna quit," and that's it. Seemed like I was very independent.

MN: So you came back here, your family's living in West L.A. And then you enrolled in UCLA. Why did you enroll at UCLA?

FH: Because at one time, I was thinking about going into ministry, and to do so, I had to brush up my English.

MN: And why didn't you go into the ministry?

FH: Well, because of the family. My kids were born, two of them were born and so forth, and I had to make the living instead of going further into any kind of study.

MN: So is this when you found your job with the Japanese Chamber of Commerce?

FH: That's correct. 1962.

<End Segment 23> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.