<Begin Segment 16>

TI: Now, were you interested, because I, going back to those, to the, to that moment when you first saw San Francisco Taiko...

PJH: Absolutely. Yeah, I thought, yay. But at that time I didn't have any plans of moving back to San Jose. It was like, Berkeley. So, oh, by coincidence, now that I'm gonna get this job, oh, taiko's going on.

TI: Now, so what came first, taiko or Roy?

PJH: Taiko or Roy?

TI: [Laughs] I mean, not first terms of your emotions, but in terms of, sequentially, were you, were you becoming involved with Roy or... [PJH shakes head] okay, so it was...

PJH: No, but he helped me a lot. I would, I regarded him as a brother, you know.

TI: 'Cause here he gets you a job and --

PJH: He helps me with the job, he also helped a lot in Japan. This is one thing I also, want to go back to Japan, I, in teaching in English there was one student that worked for a TV company and he was a leftist during his years as a student, and so I didn't have anything, no English manuals to refer to, but I took Yellow Pearl, the first creative edition of Asian American poetry and music, and I took that to Japan. And I referred that, I referred to that as my English lessons, and I happened to meet one gentleman, Matsunaka-san, who became very intrigued about learning English, but his, but he wanted to know more about the Asian American experience. And I said, and I just said one time during the lesson, I said, "I wish more people could know more about this." Next week he comes, he goes, "You want to be on TV?" [Laughs] "How about, how about we present the Asian American experience?"

TI: And you would be the spokesperson? [Laughs]

PJH: Yes. Yeah. And so I go, "Great," but of course I thought I couldn't do this by myself, so I, I contacted two other "sisters" who were in Japan at that time, Maryann Okumura, I don't know if you know Maryann, and Yuki Shiroma who's an artist in Hawaii now. But they were activists also in the time that we were all here in Bay Area, so anyway, I said, "You want to tell the story? Let's get together." So we actually wrote to all kinds of people here, Belva Davis, Jen Yanahiro, all kinds of, Roy, people from Asian American studies, "Can you send us resources 'cause we're gonna, we got a chunk of time on TV, national TV in Japan?" It was called the Morning Show, The Morning Show, seven o'clock in the morning, but we really pulled together a program where we can kind of share our personal experiences and it was really phenomenal. Here are all these housewives that are sitting behind us and we're sitting at a table with an interpreter and the host of the program, and they start off like, "Ohayo gozaimasu," and it was planned. "Good morning." They wanted us to... "Ara? You speak English." [Laughs] So that's how it kind of like was the opening and...

TI: 'Cause you look Japanese, but you speak English. I see. Got it.

PJH: Exactly. So I think that was the beginning. I think that might have been, perhaps, the first televised sharing of the Asian American experience. I wanted to have a Chris and Joanne song being sung by a group in Japan and I approached them because I love their music. It reminded me of that Tanko Bushi, and I asked them if they could sing a Chris and Joanne song and they go, "Oh, we don't want to be waving a yellow banner." I was like, my goodness, dashed again. But anyway, we had, like, their recorded music in the background. It was maybe about a twelve minute show, fifteen minute show.

TI: And what was the, the impact afterwards? I mean, did you hear much about that show?

PJH: Well, it was funny because I, after leaving the stage and going to the coffee shop, somebody from the TV station comes up and says, "You have a telephone call." Who could it be? "Hey PJ, this is Yuji." It's my Japanese language teacher from Cal State Hayward. "I'm at home and I was eating my breakfast and I'm reading the paper and I hear something that sounds really familiar and I look up and I see you." [Laughs] So that was a response.

TI: Was this like a NHK?

PJH: It was not, it was NET. Nihon Educational Television, I think. So that, okay, that chapter, so anyway.

TI: So that was another example where Roy helped you out a little by, by sending...

PJH: Yes, thank you. Thank you for getting back on track. Yeah, so he sent resources over. So this is how the blossoming, like, the, between PJ and Roy. It's like, I always like, oh Roy, not interested in that, but because he really helped me, it's like, that guy is so nice, but this other little voice in my brain going, give the guy a chance. Be nice to him. [Laughs] So I was already prepared to be nice to him, when I came back.

TI: But then, so it sounds like you got involved with San Jose Taiko first before a relationship started?

PJH: No, kind of both. I started in January of 1974 at Cal, at San Jose State under urban planning program, as a grad student, and I was taking Japanese classes, like, I can get serious now about my Japanese class. Not like Yuji who called on the phone, not like his class and laugh through his classes, but I was really earnest about understanding Japanese and learning. So there were those classes along with urban planning and volunteering to help out with the resource center at the Asian American studies program on campus. So because of that, Roy was there, we still, we were hanging out with same people in Japantown, lived across the street from, apartments on Third Street, and yeah, we'd see each other a lot. Then, like the invitation would, "Come check out taiko." "Oh, sure. I'm gonna check it out." So I, that's how I started to do that. It was all at the same time, Asian American Studies and taiko.

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.