Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Fred Y. Hoshiyama Interview
Narrator: Fred Y. Hoshiyama
Interviewer: Tom Ikeda
Location: Culver City, California
Date: February 25, 2010
Densho ID: denshovh-hfred_2-01-0014

<Begin Segment 14>

TI: So how did you afford going to college?

FH: How can I afford it? Berkeley was twenty-five dollars a semester. Today, it's thousands of dollars. Those, my days, twenty-five dollars. One dollar for breakage, science courses, chemistry, twenty-six dollars a semester. That's two semesters every year, twenty-five, twenty-six, fifty-two dollar is all the tuitions. Then for room and board, I get a job working in a family. I prepare breakfast, wash dishes, clean the house once a week, serve breakfast every morning, and supper every night, and clean up, then you get room and board. So all your expenses are paid, and they give you a dollar a week for car fare. So I, instead of taking the car, I walk about a mile and a half. Just start up earlier and come home later. But I miss the social life on the campus 'cause I have to work. That's the one thing I missed, the campus life. Otherwise, I enjoyed college.

TI: Yeah, but that's how you afford it, so you worked your way through...

FH: We all did, most of us. Most Niseis worked their way through, yeah. Unless they were children of able, wealthy parents. We had quite a few that came from Los Angeles, went to Berkeley. Carl Tamaki was, became head of the Water and Power here, he passed away, Carl, heart. Shoichi Fukui, the largest funeral here, Fukui Mortuary.

TI: But these were from Los Angeles, they had more money...

FH: Yeah. They lived on the campus, and I remember they were freshmen when I was a senior. They all passed away, so I lost all my friends.

TI: So you had to work hard to get your college education.

FH: Well, I...

TI: Well, the question I want to ask is, so, why? What did you want to do with a college education?

FH: Well, I didn't know exactly. I wanted to go into social work, and I applied. My grades were good, I told you, so I got in easy. But Dean Chernan, of the head of the Social Work Department, Dr. Chernan said, "Mr. Hoshiyama, I want to talk to you." I go and see him and he says, "Why do you want to get a master's? It's going to take you two years, and you can't use it. I knew that. You couldn't get jobs in those days.

TI: Because you were Nisei, you were Japanese American?

FH: Japanese American. And there was no jobs, nada. And yet I said, "You never know, it might open up, and I'll be ready when it opens up." He said, "It ain't gonna open up for a long time. It's better you get a job instead of going... you're in, so that's not the issue. I just want to talk to you about it because I think you are wasting two good years of your life, and you already lost four years."

TI: Because even with your bachelor's, you would not get a job in your field?

FH: That's right. The only job available was fifty dollars a month, either in the fruit stand or some other job like that, you know, in a florist department. However, you could work for another Japanese firm, and there are some jobs like that, but there aren't very many. Or you start your own business, but that takes capital. So those are the options, three options in those days.

TI: So again thinking of your upbringing, the hard work, so what were you thinking? Why would you even go get a master's?

FH: Well, I decided that if I got my master's in social work, it was kind of vague, but I was hoping for hope that something will open up, and I could work and work with people. I enjoyed working with people. I didn't think that I'd be working for YMCA, 'cause I didn't see any job at the YMCA, I would have loved that. And lo and behold, in May, Mr. Tomizawa come to visit my mother and says, "We'd like to ask Fred to come and work for the Japanese YMCA, and we want to ask your permission for us to approach Fred." That's a Japanese custom. I didn't know that, but he talks to my mother to give me a job. So of course Mother's happy that I'm considering it. That's an honorable job because that serves the community. And I just grabbed it. And so June 1st I started at the same Japanese YMCA that started Yamato Colony. And I said, "This is strange, but somehow God has a hand in this." I was born there, my father was member of the Japanese YMCA in San Francisco, and now I'm going to be working at the same Japanese YMCA where I kind of grew up when I was a kid. That was fun, too.

TI: But on their part, they probably saw the same thing. Here's Fred whose father started here...

FH: It could be.

TI: ...he grew up with the YMCA, he would be the perfect person.

FH: I don't know about that. But that's the best thing that ever happened to me. That opened up vistas for me and gave me good experience. And my first job was to take, recruit and take kids to camp, summer. And had a wonderful experience there. Then Pearl Harbor came. So right after that, we had to stop doing programs. People come to the Y for help, so we published a street paper, get all the latest information, tried to weed out the rumors versus what's true, and go see the FBI and find out what's actually happening, at Whitcomb Hotel, then we'd mimeograph this street paper, both in Japanese and English, and give it out to the people.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.