<Begin Segment 31>

TI: And by making that decision and working at the YMCA, how did the community treat you?

FH: You mean to start with?

TI: Well, so you made this, this change at the Y. And were you sort of, did the community give you a hard time because of this, because you worked at the Y?

FH: Not exactly. But you see, the different churches used to go camping with a Japanese group. But when it became mixed, it stopped. So it wasn't a personal thing, but it was a cultural thing. And we had basketball teams, and we had good teams, 'cause Bill Russell, he used to come and play. And we had some excellent... K.C. Jones was an All-American Hall of Famer, Celtics with Bill Russell. He was, he learned his skills there, too. So we had some wonderful teams like that, but Japanese? No. They had their own thing. So we had a kind of a... within the big house, the Nisei and the blacks and the Filipino. We had a mango group, Filipino group. But that's okay. You don't have to force integration, it just had to happen naturally, and you have to learn each other and get to know each other, and that way it grows.

TI: And what was, sort of, the feelings of, say, the African Americans towards the Niseis? Did they, were they open to them, or was there still this similar kind of feeling?

FH: I think the Afro Americans also liked to be by themselves, too, 'cause they know what prejudice is. But I think they, very acceptance of Japanese, more so than the Japanese accepted black Americans, but there's still work to be done. And so one of the things that I feel good about when we started this as a community-wide, once a month, we had an international night to get acquainted with the community. So we would bring in many different cultural groups and have entertainment, and have different food at these events and invite people to come. And the newspapers picked that up and gave us lots of space and pictures and publicity. And so that helped to create a better feeling. And sure, the leadership people, we tried to mix the board, we had a good mixture on the board, and we worked at it very hard. But it was hard to win the Nisei. So they started their own groups here and there, all over. Churches started summer programs, childcare, summer programs. Before, they came to the Y. Now -- and the Y knows how to do this -- but racially they want their own. And the parents feel more comfortable if they have their own. And so it just meant more activities in the community. But it did hurt the Y program in that respect.

<End Segment 31> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.