<Begin Segment 25>

SY: Same with Michi Weglyn, did you know her at all during camp?

HS: No, not in camp. I didn't meet her 'til many years later, when somehow, I think when Michi was, somehow, on camp stuff and everything... I think Aiko Herzig is the one that mentioned something about Michi, and then she did something. Anyway, on the, when I was doing one of the reunions, I think I wrote to her 'cause I needed her bio. That's what it was, and that's how we started corresponding. And so I forget which reunion it was, but anyway, that's when I contacted her. And then we had a couple of messages back and forth, and then I didn't meet her until she came to Los Angeles to make that... but I remember she did write me one letter one time, when, what was it? This Clarence...

SY: Nishizu.

HS: Nishizu. He went to Philippines 'cause he heard something about a cancer treatment -- and some of 'em was a coffee enema and stuff like that, but I don't know what a -- but anyway, Clarence went there 'cause he had cancer. And so anyway, he told Michi about that, and so she went for that treatment, then coming back, she wrote me about the experiences that she had and stuff. And then she went back to New York. Anyway, but while she was on the plane she wrote to me about the experience of why she went to the Philippines for that enema treatment.

SY: Remember what she said about it? Was she...

HS: No, she didn't. Well, all it was was the letters, so I, you don't ask that, stuff about that. [Laughs] But she's a wonderful person, though.

SY: And how, how did you know Aiko Herzig? Did you, you were in...

HS: She and I were in the same junior high school and high school class.

SY: So you were friends from junior high school.

HS: Yeah.

SY: So she lived in the same are that you did, in that sort of in between.

HS: Well, she lived in, right near St. Mary's Church and I lived on Washington Boulevard, but my only ties were all of the kids in junior high school and high school.

SY: So when she, so she was the one, one of the people who was refused a diploma too, also?

HS: Refused what?

SY: A diploma. When she, did she... she was younger, she was younger than you were.

HS: Yeah, well, she went to Manzanar, so actually, I don't know if she even knew that... 'cause nobody knew that we didn't get our diplomas until, I was the only one. 'Cause the principal called me in the office and, on the day I was leaving, he says, "I don't think you people deserve your diploma, and I'm not giving 'em to you."

SY: Was she in the same class, though, as you were?

HS: Yeah.

SY: But she didn't, so...

HS: But that principal was so prejudiced, and even when they said that all students should get it, I remember the, the acting chairman, superintendent of the L.A. City Schools, he came to Santa Anita and gave diplomas to every class that was eligible, but L.A. High School, not one name was called. And I went up to him and asked him, I says, "How come L.A. High wasn't called?" He says, "Oh?" He says, "I'll take care of it." Never heard a word from him after that. Nobody ever knew anything about it, until Warren got elected, and then my buddy Toru says, "You know," he says, "for forty-seven years they've been saying this is, I'm not a graduate of L.A. High School, and so it's about time you did something." He said, "Now that we've got a Japanese guy on the board," he said, "you write to him and tell him what happened." So a month later I did write him a letter. He looked at it, and so first he called Aiko. I didn't know that that was his mother in law, but he called up, says, "Mom, I got this letter from Mr. Shishino. He says that you were never given credit as a graduate of L.A. High School." Says, "That's right." She says, "I had to take one year of high school class at New York in order to get my diploma. But it doesn't mean anything." She says, "But L.A. High School, I'm not considered a graduate." So that's when I...

SY: So she was one of the people that got the diploma when...

HS: Yeah.

SY: That's a great --

HS: She was in New York, so actually, I hadn't seen her until we had that graduation ceremony in, what year it was, 1987 or something. I says, "My god, forty-seven years we haven't seen each other," gave her a great big hug. [Laughs]

<End Segment 25> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.