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TI: Okay, so John, we're gonna start, and I always start with the date of today's interview, so today's Wednesday, March 21, 2012, and we're in San Jose at the Japanese American Museum of San Jose. And so, John, the first question is, tell me when your birthdate is.
JH: April the 2nd, 1918. There's a story behind this in that when my mother was in labor, my father called the doctor and the secretary and says, "April fool," and hung up. So that's why I was born on April the 2nd. Down the street there was a Japanese midwife, and she brought me to this earth. So I wasn't born a fool.
TI: But that's really true, that he said, "April Fools' Day," that...
JH: Yeah, that's true. And when I was with the Coronet Dance Club some of the officers were from the San Francisco Police Department, and when I said I was born in San Francisco, "What address?" He said, "Hey, that house is still there."
TI: Interesting. So what part of town in San Francisco?
JH: They call it Presidio Heights. In other words, it's on the shady side of the hill. Pacific Heights is where all the rich guys live, and then on the shady side where the workers live. [Laughs]
TI: Okay. So April 2nd...
JH: 1918.
TI: 1918, and in San Francisco, you were born. What was the name given to you at birth?
JH: The street?
TI: No, your name, what was the name they gave?
JH: Yoneo.
TI: Say it again.
JH: Yoneo, Y-O-N-E-O. That's my, see, there, here again, when we first went, yeah, on the first trip to Japan, you have to have a passport, so we went to the post, or the federal building, and I said, "My legal name is Yoneo Hayakawa, but I've been all my life John." "Oh," she says, "Put John Yoneo as your first name," and so that made it legal. So my passport says John Yoneo Hayakawa. And I'm glad about that because, who wants to be called Yoneo?
TI: And how old were you when you went to Japan?
JH: [Laughs] I was already a mature man. See, those things, well...
TI: Or how old were you, maybe?
JH: How old was I? You know, I've been in and out of the States so frequently, let's see...
TI: Was it before the war or after the war?
JH: After the war.
TI: After the war. And that's when you changed your name legally to John.
JH: Yeah, that's when I needed a passport. Because on a Mexican cruise or a Caribbean, all you need is a...
TI: Like a driver's license or --
JH: No, there's something simpler than that. Anyway, didn't need a passport, no. Even going, well, Alaska's United States, so...
TI: Well, how did, how did you get the name John? Who gave you that name?
JH: When I went, first went to kindergarten, I was going Yoneo, Yoneo, and somewhere along the line, in the upper grades, some teacher gave me the name John. Or maybe my dad did. Yeah, maybe my dad did. But I never, yeah, 'til I went into camp I was still Yoneo. In other words, when I registered for the draft and when I signed up for the evacuation, it was Yoneo.
TI: Okay. Good.
<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.