<Begin Segment 23>

MN: What was the, when you received your diploma, was it from Denson High School or from Edison High School?

BT: It was Denson High School. The Denson High School, they contacted Edison to try to get diplomas for us, but it never happened. I don't know if they tried with all the other schools, but I know for a fact that they tried Edison because I have a copy of the letter.

MN: How did you feel about not getting a diploma from Edison?

BT: Yeah, like I said, that, that part kind of hurt. But that was, let's see, as the years went by, this is kind of fast-forwarding, but in 1990 the Fresno Unified School District had a graduation program for everybody that graduated high school in camp. So that was nice.

MN: Well let's talk about that, since you sort of fast forwarded. [Laughs] And tell me, how did this 1990 ceremony come about? It didn't start in 1990?

BT: No, what happened was in 1988 the class of '43, Edison High School, had a reunion. I didn't go because I felt I don't know those people anymore. So anyway, at the reunion there was two Japanese American ladies that went, and with all the visiting and talking, this one former classmate named, her name was Phyllis, she says, "You know," says, "there's only two of you here, Japanese." She said, "There was more than that." So the Japanese, the Nisei reminded her of the evacuation, and this really bothered Phyllis.

[Interruption]

BT: Anyway, so she went to the principal of Edison High School and told her this story, says, "It's not right, it's not their fault. And they graduated in the camp, so we should do something about it." So the principal told her, well, do what, see what you can do. So she got a hold of the vice principal of Fresno High School and told her, told him the same thing, and the vice principal says, "Yeah. You know," he says, "to make a mistake is one thing, and not to correct it is worse yet." So he took it upon himself to contact the Fresno Unified School District and told 'em that we deserve our graduation. So from there, he went to the state education department. They were all for it, said go for it. So they contacted as many people as they could, and in 1990 we had graduation. It was all the high schools. We had four high schools then, in Fresno, and so, but it was held in Edison High School. Then, kind of sad, but only about seventeen, seventeen people showed up.

MN: Seventeen out of a possible how many?

BT: I think it was about seventy-five or something like that. They also invited other students, non-Japanese, that didn't get a graduation because they went into service or like that, so we had a couple of them there too. That was, that was nice.

MN: But you almost didn't make it to this graduation either. You wouldn't have known about it.

BT: Yeah. I didn't get a notice on that, but my brother -- he was living in Fresno -- he called me up and said, "Hey, they're having a graduation," this and that. Said, "Oh," I says. So he gave me some phone numbers, so I called, I says, "I didn't get an invitation, but," I says, "I would like to go." Said, "Oh, sure. We were looking for people like you." So they signed me up. That was, that was really neat. Yeah.

MN: So you got to wear the cap and gown and walk, march up?

BT: Yeah, we had all that. We even had the color guard out there, and had the orchestra, had everything.

MN: So what was going through your mind as you were going through the ceremony?

BT: I don't know. I mean, I was feeling so good that this was happening. And one of the funny things is, we're sittin' there, I guess they must've had us in alphabetical order or something. Anyway, I don't know, once they start calling our names -- they had Kenso Zenimura call out the names because the Caucasians, they felt a little intimidated with the Japanese names. Anyway, so when we went up there they would announce our name. So they called me up, we'd get our diploma, come back, sit down, and the guy sitting next to me, he taps me on the shoulder, says, "You Ben Tonooka?" I says yeah. He was my best man at my first wedding. [Laughs] And I haven't seen him since, because he moved up north. That was, that was strange. And he, I don't know if he, he didn't really recognize me, but when Kenso called out my name, he was standing behind me when this happens, so when we sat down... touch old bases.

MN: You didn't recognize your best man. [Laughs]

BT: Yeah.

<End Segment 23> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.