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TI: Well, there, there was, like, a flashpoint, '68, the assassination of Martin Luther King. I mean, did that play out in your neighborhood and at Skyline?

RH: I remember when it happened there was a big fear in our, at our campus and basically the principal sent all the, the kids that were being bused in, they sent us home right away, basically, and so they just said "go home." So, and they, they didn't really say why, but I think their concern that it was gonna be some kind of tension, a racial outburst from that, so they just basically wanted to get us off the campus when it happened. So it was, yeah, it was kind of hard at that time. Again, that was kind of the growing, the sentiment that was going on.

TI: And for you, how did this all play out for you? What were you thinking during this time period?

RH: Well, again, coming... one, living in a real strong black neighborhood, trying to understand what that meant and then going to a school that was predominantly white and trying to understand what that meant, and at the same time growing up in this Kibei family that had our own values and culture that was happening, it was really, it was really confusing for me, I guess, to put it one way. [Laughs] Trying to figure out which way to kind of lean towards, like I'm not black, I'm not white definitely, and so, and I am Japanese, but I'm not even sure if I'm Japanese American because of my parents and their experience and how I was raised under them, and so all of that really was kind of, it really started making me question. And I think I mentioned to you, when he was going to, he went to Cal, so he was at UC Berkeley in the mid-'60s when the anti, the Free Speech Movement was going on, Mario Savio was doing all his thing, and so he would come home and talk about that or even bring me on campus when some of that stuff was happening on the weekends, just to see what was going on, so I would get to kind of hear or see some of that action that was happening about free speech and what it meant to be, to be able to speak your piece and all this kind of thing. And that really kind of made me start thinking, too, like well, I can't just, can't just be quiet about who I am, but I really have to start finding out who I am and discover that. And so it was, there was a lot of those different experiences that really were kind of gelling at that same time.

TI: It's kind of special that your older brother brought you on campus to hear this, because he's, he's what, about five, six years older than you?

RH: Right.

TI: And did he ever tell you why it was important for you to hear this?

RH: No, other than that it was, it was like, he knew that it was a major turning point in our society, too, and so naturally that was kind of a conflict for my parents, too, because they, they said, the oldest son's at Cal, which was very important for them, and here all this anti student stuff is going on, so they're saying, "Don't get involved with that, don't listen to that," and whatever, so whenever he would talk about it or be involved with it they, naturally they weren't very happy with that. They said, "You're just there to study. You're not there to do all this other stuff." And so, but I think he realized that there was more to it and than just studying on campus. There was, because of all the experiences he had to deal with. And then, for him too, he was really involved with ROTC, so during, even high school and then at Cal, and so he was, he had to deal with that factor, too, and he actually, because ROTC, naturally, he got a commission after he graduated, but he was sent to Vietnam, so he had to actually go over there.

TI: Wow, so for him, I mean, again, similar in terms of all these, these different things hitting him in terms of his Japanese upbringing, being there during the Free Speech Movement, military, in terms of ROTC, I mean, it must've been a very confusing time for him, also, in terms of trying to sort this all out.

RH: Right.

TI: And did you ever just talk with him? I mean, you're, again, you're quite a bit younger, so it might've been hard, but you, did he ever share some of the things that he was grappling with?

RH: During that time not so much. Later on little bit more so, but no, during that time, no. But yeah, having, just for myself, realizing that these are things I'm also having to face soon, so it was something I had to be aware of. I think my other brother, Sam, that really kind of impacted him, too, because he saw that happening, too. That was not a direction he wanted to go in, so that was, that was his concern, too.

TI: And was Sam also in college during this time? So Steve was at Berkeley, what was Sam doing?

RH: Sam went to, he started Cal State Hayward, when that campus was just starting up and stuff and, but he really didn't finish school at all there.

TI: Okay.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.