<Begin Segment 11>

HK: That was... the war ended in '45 so about '46 I came back and interestingly enough, here again my class... I was in ninth grade and in tenth grade they elected me tenth grade class president, and then in my twelfth grade, senior year, I was elected student body president which is really quite remarkable when you think about so soon after the war ended, that I was elected for that office. What's also interesting is that Norman Mineta, who was the former congressman, mayor of San Jose, of course cabinet Transportation Secretary of Commerce, secretary, et cetera, et cetera. Norman and I are the same age but I had heard he was going to San Jose High School, he became the student body president there. And I think I mentioned this earlier, that somehow Herb Caen, the columnist in the Chronicle in San Francisco picked up that story and he mentioned our names in one of his articles. The article's called "Bagdad by the Bay," that was his... I don't know if it was daily or not but it was often. He mentioned this high school senior at San Jose, Norman Mineta, and then Harry Kawahara in San Leandro, they were elected student presidents in 1949, which was not too long as I said after the war ended. And he thought that was quite remarkable that that would have happened. But anyway, at my high school reunion I told my former classmates I was really appreciative of their receiving me so warmly, and I really expressed that I really felt good that they were understanding about the whole circumstance, so that made me feel good.

SY: And it's just peculiar to me that Herb Caen picked up this story and was it to say... was that the point of the story?

HK: Yes, that was the point of the story, as I said the war in the Pacific had ended in August of '45, and I guess his point was that it's quite remarkable that these two high school seniors became student body presidents in 1949 which is, well, you know, four years after and he thought that was quite notable.

[Interruption]

SY: I'd like to talk a little bit more about your being elected student body president because it seems to me that you were a very popular person to become elected like that. I know it's hard from your perspective to see that.

HK: I liked school and I enjoyed my experience in high school. The eleventh grade I was encouraged to run for yell leader of all things, a Japanese American running for yell leader, my gosh. So I became the head yell leader which is kind of hard to believe that I did that at the time. So I became more active in student events and so on, so I guess I began to know people and people knew me from some of the things I was doing. And I was encouraged to run for student body president in my senior year, and I did that and won, so that was a nice feeling.

SY: But to be a student body president, I mean, it requires a certain amount of you would think not only popularity but you're probably a fairly good leader in a sense.

HK: I guess in a sense, but I was just kind of developing leadership at the time. It was still formative.

SY: I see, because your sister had been a student body president.

HK: That's true, she was a leader in school, that's correct, so I guess in some respects she was a model for me.

SY: And your family obviously was... I mean, it seems to me like your brother was somewhat of a leader, he went out...

HK: Yeah, the sugar beets and so on and getting the house for us and going to language school.

SY: So it's kind of a lot of initiative?

HK: Yeah, again, we had to survive so we had to do whatever was necessary to do that. Again, that's not unlike a lot of other Japanese American families. We just, hard work and perseverance and diligence, people just worked hard.

SY: But there weren't a lot of... how many Japanese were in your high school?

HK: Not a large number, probably maybe a dozen, maybe a dozen or so.

SY: So it wasn't like you were the... you even had a big majority of Japanese in your class.

HK: Yes, there were not that many Japanese, in fact, there was only one other Japanese in my class. Her name was Jane, Jane Ogo, and there was also a Chinese girl her name was Shirley Chan, and so, no, there were very few Asians in our school.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.