<Begin Segment 11>

TI: So let's go to San Francisco, where you said it was like night and day.

FH: Oh, yes. For example, I mentioned the fact that we had no electricity. So every day, my job was to clean the lantern and lamps, and trim the wicks for the kerosene, the light, and to gather woods. Every time we want to heat anything, stove, you had to go and get wood and chop it up. If we wanted to eat chicken or anything, we had to go out and kill the chicken and pluck the feathers. Well, when we go to the city, you just go in the butcher shop, buy this, buy that. You drop a nickel in the trolley box, and you go anywhere in San Francisco. On paved road, you don't have to worry about dirt, shoes. Then, you push a button on the wall, behold, this light. Before, you had to spend hours cleaning your lamp, filling kerosene, trimming the wick, here you just push a button, and light. That's just symbolic of the difference in life, from city life to farm life, especially where we were. That doesn't mean that there was no electricity someplace in Livingston, they had some. But we're so remote that our farm did not have electricity 'til later. However, they did have telephone, as I remember. We did have a telephone that's on a three-party line or four-party line, you could listen in when they talk. But it was a cell -- oh, that's why, they had dry cell batteries. That's why they were able to do the telephone.

TI: So in San Francisco when you arrived, you were around fifteen years old.

FH: I was fifteen, yes. I think I was fifteen, and I was in the middle of eighth grade. So I went to Hamilton junior high school, which was near where we lived in San Francisco, and went to school there.

TI: And when you started school there, how was your education? Were you pretty much the same as the other students?

FH: Well, it's a little vague in my mind. I know that it was a new experience. I think I kept up with the other students fairly well, although I wasn't a star student like some of the kids were. I did, when I was in Livingston, with the lamplight, I used to do lots of reading. And I think part of my eye trouble is I strained and abused my eyes, probably. I read all kinds of cowboy stories as I remember, Zane Grey was a popular author at that time, and I used to go the library and read a lot. I loved to read. And I enjoyed going to school; I never regretted or felt bad about school. I thought that was wonderful, 'cause I'm learning new things.

TI: Or how did you fit in? Because here you were, you grew up on a farm, and now you're coming in, all these other boys were city boys...

FH: Well, one thing I had to learn, I have to get a part-time job to survive also, city. And Mother didn't have no skill, so she worked as like a second maid in a home. And my father also was a janitor, and later he worked for the Nichi Bei Times, the newspaper. He'd go around collecting the subscription, those that didn't pay, he had to go collect. But that was a tough job, but he worked hard at it. I got me a... in order to do a paper route, I used to do, sell apples, pencils, newspaper, and deliver newspaper. That was mainly my income, and I worked for Nichi Bei Times, and I had different routes. I was always looking for a better route, meaning higher paying routes. The highest paying route was Route Four that hit all the hills. Nob Hill, Chinatown area of San Francisco. That was the hardest of all the routes, 'cause it's all hills. But I finally got that route. But different people, students would graduate, well, they'd open up, and I'd grab it. So three years I worked as a paper delivery boy.

TI: And this was delivering the Nichi Bei Times?

FH: Yes. I delivered Nichi Bei Times. And so, of course, Abiko's the president, so... although I don't think it was a matter of favoritism, I just worked there, no contact with Abikos after one, first year I lived with them.

TI: But you mentioned Nob Hill and all these hills, so were there Japanese living...

FH: Yeah, they were the cooks, and they were the valets, they were gardeners, you know, housekeepers, and they would take the paper. So I used to deliver here, one every ten blocks or sometimes two, three here. And Chinatown was one of those. I remember Harry Kitano was a kid like this, he became a professor and author and head of the Asian Studies center at UCLA later. I know all his brothers, sisters. His father was a community leader, and I was the president of the JACL in 1952, JACL. And so he and I went raising money to help pass the McCarran Act. That was the McCarran Act of 1952 that made it possible to change immigration laws so that our parents, all Asians, could be eligible to become a naturalized citizen of this country. It didn't happen until 1952, and I remember going to every store, every plant, every... wherever we can in San Francisco.

TI: This is jumping around a little bit, but I'm curious, why would you have to raise money to pass the McCarran Act? This was a federal legislation for immigration. What was the money gonna be used for?

FH: Money talks. Without money, you've got nothing in this world. This world runs on money, unfortunately.

TI: Well, where would the money go to in this case?

FH: Well, I'm not so sure exactly who got the money we raised. It wasn't a whole lot, but we raised the money to send to JACL, and they would then maybe lobby or talk to congressmen here and there, all over, take 'em out to dinner, you wine and dance 'em. That's why the lobbyist today is such a powerful... we're a government of lobbyists today, right now, and that started way back someplace from Jefferson days.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.