Densho Digital Repository
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Gary M. Itano Interview
Narrator: Gary M. Itano
Interviewer: Linda Tamura
Location: Los Angeles, California
Date: August 21, 2019
Densho ID: ddr-densho-1000-479-4

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LT: So where did you grow up, and can you describe your community?

GI: Okay. So I grew up in South Central L.A., in Watts. And at the time, it was a very kind of quiet community, it wasn't the place it is now with all the gun shooting and that sort of thing. And going to school, I really didn't know the difference between black or white or Asian, except when we went to the Presbyterian church. There are quite a few more white kids there, and I did notice that they were very much more obnoxious than the kids in my little hometown. And I had a girlfriend, Sharon, and we exchanged Valentine's Day cards, and I had a little, at the local library, I had a little cubicle. And then for, in exchange for helping to stack the books, I would be allowed read any book that I wanted to, so I spent a lot of time at the library at my little job.

LT: And at school, were you the only Japanese American?

GI: Yeah, us Itano kids, I think we were the only Japanese Americans in sight. I mean, our other Japanese, our friends of the family had kids, and we would see them, but they would go to different schools and we would see them maybe once a month or so for birthdays and that sort of thing, or at church, or at Nisei Week.

LT: So in your school and in your community, you and your brothers were unique in a black community. What was it like? Was it different, did it seem different to you?

GI: It was very normal, although when the Civil Rights Movement started happening in the late '50s, you could really notice the presence of the activist people, and they were stirring up the community, and people were starting to have discussions about race and that sort of thing. But being seven, eight, nine years old, it's a little bit distant to you. But you did notice that there was a lot of activity going on.

LT: But growing up, you had a black girlfriend, you had black classmates, you had black neighbors, and that was normal.

GI: Yeah.

LT: Did your mother and father sit down with you and your brothers and talk about race?

GI: Yeah. There's an incident where I was learning how to play the bass fiddle, and I had to carry it to and from school. And one day, I was carrying it to school and a kid comes up to me, a black kid comes up to me and he goes, "Nah, nah, you white paddy." And I go, "I'm not a white paddy," and I started chasing after him. I dropped the bass and I picked it up, and it was like I could tell it was not right inside of the case. So my father said, "Well, I guess you're not going to be playing bass fiddle anymore." And then around that time, around the dinner table, we would talk about, kind of like... well, it was when the terminology "Negro" and "black" started to evolve. And we would say, "Well, Daddy, what should we call our friends, black or Negroes?" And his advice was, "Just call people what they want to be called," and that's stood me in fairly good stead ever since, very simple and straightforward.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2019 Densho. All Rights Reserved.