<Begin Segment 9>

MN: Now, by birth, you're a United States citizen. But you had to change your citizenship status when you entered middle school. Why?

FH: Well, because in those days, in the middle school, they did not have the foreign student system. Going to the higher education, they did, like, from China and Korea. Well, Korean was Japanese in those days, but China and so forth. But in middle school, they did not. And so I had to have my Japanese nationality. Because when I was born, if my birth was reported to the Japanese consulate in Spokane within two weeks, automatically, I would have the Japanese citizenship. Because Japanese, they go by blood. Here, you go by the place of birth, so there's a difference in the nationality, I mean, the citizenship system. But my dad did not register me, and so I had only the Japanese, U.S. citizenship when I entered that middle school in Japan.

MN: So what was the process to become a Japanese citizenship?

FH: Okay, it was called (yoshi engumi), through the adoption. And myself and my brother was adopted by my real parents, the parents by birth, into their family register, because it is the registry that counts, you know, not the fact of what happened, but the registry. So that's how I gained that, regained my Japanese nationality.

MN: Did you have to renounce your U.S. citizenship when you regained your, when you gained your Japanese citizenship?

FH: No. I never renounced the Japanese, U.S. citizenship, no. I never did that. And I think I was age fifteen at that time, fourteen or fifteen. And so it was done through the guardian, my parents or my grandfather.

MN: And you said in middle school, there was a math teacher that gave you a bad time?

FH: Yes.

MN: Can you share with us the story of your wool pants?

FH: Okay. My parents used to work for the hakujin guys quite a bit, especially my mother, housework and so forth. And so there was a worn-out wool pants, which she got and sent it to me in Japan. And so I was wearing that pants, and we did homework on the blackboard and I was there doing the math, but I could not complete that. And so the teacher says, "Hey, look at this guy, this Amerikan kabure," you know, "He thinks that he's half American. See what he's wearing? No wonder he cannot do his homework." Because in those days, the only thing that the students were supposed to wear was made by cotton, no wool. And so I was mocked there, yes, in front of the whole student. His name was Yoshikata.

MN: Can you share with us what it was like going through the Japanese school system during the war? Did you sing the Kimigayo, and can you share with us what is the Kyoiku Chokugo?

FH: Yes, of course, on national holidays and so forth, always getting into the auditorium, the whole students, and then the Kimigayo was sang and so forth. And what was read was the Kyoiku Chokugo, that Edict of Education, the Meiji era Edict of Education. And what it says, it says about the Imperial Family and so forth, how the Imperial Family, out of love, you know, ruled the country and so forth. And then it goes into the private matter: respect your parents, be kind to your brothers, your neighbors and so forth, things like that. And that was Kyoiku Chokugo, and we had to remember every word of that. And there was an instant, sometimes, there was, the principal was reading that, and he made a mistake. And so he took his own life, because of the fact that he made a mistake in reading the Imperial Edict and so forth.

MN: So all students had to memorize that.

FH: Yes, correct. Correct.

MN: And it was basically rules, to do this, to do that from the Meiji era.

FH: Right, right.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.