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SY: So the art -- I do want to talk about your artwork as well, because education and art have been...

YN: Yes, they do run together.

SY: Yes, and you've continued as an artist up to today.

YN: Right. I have found refuge (from) a lot of the administrative, difficult as we had time to time, some discussions which sometimes may not be all that friendly. Art is a refuge area and I continue to produce art, it was a very good (outlet for me).

SY: And some of your pieces have, can you give an idea... I do want to point out that the piece behind us is one of your beautiful works.

YN: Okay.

SY: But can you tell us a little bit about some of the other...

YN: Yes. Well, you see, as I was teaching and, again, the reputation for some reason has grown, and I have my former students writing to me. I just got a note from my favorite teacher, and some who say that, having gone to college and all this and, "You're still my favorite teacher," so that's really quite heartwarming to have people remember you, for one thing. I mean, someone might have said, "Who's he?" Well, anyway, to be remembered by name and by what I've done, so that has been very rewarding, As a result I was named one of the outstanding educators in a booklet that came out in 1970. So these things have been helpful, and as I have been doing the work in the department I was given more responsibilities. Before long I was doing community services and some of my art, and an opportunity came where I could become the dean, so I applied and they appointed me. But as a dean I was able to have programs that supported the arts and the Rio Hondo symphony, we established a workshop for graphic arts to come in and use the equipment, things like that, so we had children's art workshops and various academic programs. So there were things that we were able to do besides many other things.

SY: How did you pursue your actual artistic career, your work as an artist?

YN: What I have done is, as a teacher I said, "You know, you can talk about art, you can go to art shows, you can argue about it, and someday you really have to do it." And so I'm taking my own advice. I decided that I'd better get down to doing some work myself. Although I've been doing work myself, as a teacher, I always like to do the project that I assign to my students, to kind of work my way through. Not to influence them in the direction that I've gone, but to realize some of the potential problems that might come up. I found that all these other experiences I've had in the past have been very helpful. Even when I was in Italy, here I was, I came in late so we could not go home when most of the 442nd (went) home, but I was able to visit museums and see paintings and sculpture by Michelangelo. So those things all just kind of built up. One of the things that I have told people over and over, especially young people, that it doesn't matter what your experience is. You take the best of it and build on it. If someone gives you something that's very distasteful, you put it aside, and you decide what is something you can use out of it, so those things, I think they're really helpful.

SY: Does your work reflect that?

YN: Yes, it does. I think my life reflects that. I don't dwell on the negative aspects. It's unfortunate that there are people who feel they are victims -- and actually there were victims, but to internalize it so that you are always saying, "I'm a victim," it doesn't release you. I think you find that if you forgive people for the dumb things they did to you, then it frees you to do things yourself. I mean, you don't have to be thinking, "Oh, that son of a gun did this to me." Well, you think about other people who've done some really good things. I've been very fortunate; like I said, my brother was very, very encouraging, and my younger brother and my sister, they all thought that I'm the first to go to college, I should be encouraged. I have a wife who's very encouraging, and my (adult) children (and grandchildren) give me a lot of inspiration, (also) I have a body of friends who keep (me going).

SY: And can you just give us an idea of where your work, where we can find your work today? Are there, I know...

YN: Well, Grace gave you a little postcard. Grace and I and Joel will have some work in the Hillcrest Festival (on) the last full weekend in February. I usually have work in the Whittier Art Gallery. Grace has a couple of works in there right now. So I've been asked to bring some things in, so I'll have some things there. But I would like to say something else. I go back to Madeline Halley and Ruth Green Paul because they were so outstanding. One of the things that Madeline Halley saw in Long Beach, her husband was in the Coast Guard, she saw this newspaper which had a picture of me and a Rio Hondo College art collection. She looked at it and thought, "Gee, could that be Yoshio, the one I had in El Monte?" So she called and sure enough, found out that I am the one. So we got together and had a great reunion. Then she even said, "You know, I have something that my mother saved for you." So it's a... excuse me, it was really a great thing. And one other thing about her is that Ruth Green Paul would come to Gila and bring things to us. So she was a really great person, and...

SY: In the first grade she, she remembered you from the first grade on, right?

YN: Yes, it's really something. And there were people like that who were very supportive.

SY: Can you share what it was that she gave you?

YN: Excuse me?

SY: What was it that her mother had saved for you?

YN: There were some dishes and kimono and things that I was able to pass on to my sister.

SY: That's really lovely.

YN: So it was really something. But Mrs. Paul did save a lot of things for other people. You know, during that time going to Gila required a lot of gasoline, so she would have to get a lot of coupons. She and her sister would travel, and it isn't particularly safe for a woman to be driving in the dark. So one of them would wear a cowboy hat and be sitting next to the sister who was driving. But she would ask us, "What do you need?" And she would get those things for us, and it was just, it was really (wonderful).

SY: That's wonderful. Yeah, so the wonderful things that come out of every situation.

YN: Yes.

SY: And I'm afraid we're going to have to end, Yosh, but thank you so much. That's a very lovely way to end this interview. I just wish, I wish we had more time.

YN: Well, I could tell you a lot more about my career.

SY: I'm sure, and I'm dying to hear.

YN: Because it's very rewarding, and I feel like I have lived maybe two or three lives, because as a citizen, as an artist, as a teacher, as an administrator.

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.