<Begin Segment 1>
BY: Today is October 18, 2022, and I am here with David Yano at the Lakeshore retirement community in Seattle, Washington. My name is Barbara Yasui, I am the interviewer, and our videographer today is Dana Hoshide. So we're just going to go ahead and get started. So can you tell me what your full name is?
DY: David Arthur Yano.
BY: And when and where were you born?
DY: I was born in Washington, D.C., July 19, 1944.
BY: Okay, so right in the middle of the war.
DY: Right.
BY: Okay. And I'm going to ask you a little bit about your parents. What was your father's name?
DY: Thomas Yano.
BY: And when and where was he born?
DY: He was born in Port Blakeley, Washington, in 1912.
BY: 1912. And Port Blakeley is where?
DY: I think it's Bainbridge.
BY: On Bainbridge Island?
DY: Right.
BY: Okay, all right. And what do you know about your father's early life?
DY: Kind of weird. What happened is he was born here in Port Blakeley, and his grandfather died and the family moved back to Japan to take over the estate. And he was there probably ten, age ten, and from what I understand, he missed the deadline for matriculating into high school, and so he was destined to be a vocational student. And so he didn't like Japan and so he jumped the ship, worked as a cabin boy and back to Seattle.
BY: And do you know when that was? How old was he or what year it was?
DY: He was eleven.
BY: When he came back?
DY: Right.
BY: Wow, he was quite young then. Just all by himself?
DY: Right.
BY: So he came back to Seattle and then what did he do?
DY: He picked strawberries and went to school, and he worked on my mother's family's farm in the summertime. So that's how they met.
BY: And then so he finished school, and then what happened?
DY: He finished school, and this is kind of funny, because his math teacher, he was good in math, and she says there was a foreign student scholarship, "Why don't you sign up for it?" And he said, well, I was not a foreign student, "I was born here." She then said, "Well, you look foreign to me, sign it." So he applied, and he got a full bore scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania, Ivy League school. And so he went back to Philadelphia and studied there, graduated, and moved.
BY: So after he graduated from University of Pennsylvania, where did he go? Did he go back to Seattle?
DY: Just to marry my mom, and then they went back east to Washington, D.C.
BY: And why Washington, D.C.?
DY: Probably work.
BY: So did he have a job?
DY: No.
BY: Oh, okay. And he didn't want to live on the West Coast anymore?
DY: My mother didn't want to live on the West Coast anymore.
BY: And why was that?
DY: She didn't get along with her mother.
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<Begin Segment 2>
BY: So let's talk a little bit about your mother, then. What was her full name?
DY: Katherine Yamamoto.
BY: And when and where was she born?
DY: Fife.
BY: In Fife? Okay. And do you know what year?
DY: 1916, I think. Best guess.
BY: So she was a little younger than your father.
DY: Right.
BY: And so how did they meet?
DY: On a farm.
BY: So your father was working on your mother's family farm in Fife?
DY: Right.
BY: I see, all right. And then you said that after he finished his degree, he came back to Seattle to marry your mother?
DY: Right.
BY: So when was that?
DY: I don't know.
BY: [Laughs] Okay, that's all right. But so they got married and then they moved to Washington, D.C. And then what did your father do in Washington, D.C.?
DY: He worked as a draftsman for a steel company.
BY: Okay, and how about your mother?
DY: She worked as a housewife.
BY: All right. And did you have any brothers and sisters?
DY: Three sisters.
BY: Okay, and can you tell me what their names were and when they were born?
DY: Gail is the oldest one and she was born in 1942, I guess. And my second sister is Eleanor, it was 1948, and Mary was born in 19... wait a minute, getting mixed up. 1946, 1948, my second, third sister Mary was born in 1948.
BY: Okay. So you and your older sister were born during the war, and your other two sisters were born after the war, then.
DY: Right.
BY: Okay.
<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.
<Begin Segment 3>
BY: All right. So where did your family live during the war?
DY: They had a walk-up apartment in Berwyn, Maryland. I think that they just moved from a walk-up apartment on P Street, Washington, D.C. So I think Gail was born in P Street.
BY: And where were they living when you were born?
DY: In Berwyn, Maryland.
BY: In Berwyn, Maryland, all right. And so your father was working as a draftsman?
DY: Right.
BY: And this was wartime, correct?
DY: Right.
BY: And so what did your mother do? You said she was a housewife, but you told me an interesting story about your mother during the war.
DY: Well, somehow or other, word got around that the replacement soldiers for the 442 were... and they had to stay somewhere in the travel to Fort Holabird, so they couldn't stay in the hotels because they were Japanese. And I don't know, some reason they didn't, they weren't welcome. So the word got around that they can crash in my parents' apartment, so one day, she counted forty bodies on the living room floor, soldiers. So what she did is the apartment was close to Route 1, and the Greyhound bus came by, but the Greyhound bus didn't stop for the Japanese soldiers, even if they're in uniform. And what Mom did, put 'em down in the trench to hide, and she walked out on Route 1 to block the Greyhound bus. She was pregnant with me, and the bus had to stop. And she stood there until the soldiers got on the bus and settled down, and she stepped aside and let the bus go. And I don't know what the word is, but the soldiers said no. I think that if you call a male that it was very complimentary, macho. But if a woman says it, the implication is switched around and she's, by the look in her eye, she could stop a Greyhound bus in its tracks, it's a very negative connotation. I don't know what that word was.
BY: Was it a Japanese word?
DY: Right.
BY: Oh, interesting. Well, it seems to me that she was brave to do that.
DY: Right.
BY: So did this just happen one time or did it happen more than one time?
DY: I assume that it would happen more than one time.
BY: And do you know what your father thought of that? You don't know?
DY: No.
BY: And you had not been born, so you did not witness this.
DY: Right.
BY: And so then the soldiers would eventually be shipped overseas.
DY: Right.
BY: I see. But they needed a place to stay between the time that they finished their basic training and when they were shipped overseas? Do you know, were there other Japanese families living in the area?
DY: Do what?
BY: Were there other Japanese American families living in the area?
DY: Not that I know of.
BY: Okay. So really the only option was for them to find someplace to stay?
DY: Right.
BY: Wow, that's a great story.
<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.
<Begin Segment 4>
BY: All right, and so then you were growing up, you were born during the war in Berwyn, Maryland. Did you stay there or did you move?
DY: We moved, after the war, we moved in 1948. We moved to Bethesda, Maryland.
BY: And what was the neighborhood like that you lived in, in Bethesda?
DY: Huntington Terrace.
BY: And who were your neighbors? Were they white or Japanese, or what kind of a neighborhood was it?
DY: White.
BY: Pretty much all white?
DY: Right.
BY: All right. So who were your friends?
DY: We were Japanese.
BY: So were you friends with white kids in your neighborhood?
DY: Yeah.
BY: And were there any other Japanese Americans around when you were growing up?
DY: No. There were, when we were teenagers, there was a �JACL youth group. We called them the Ching-a-ling group.
BY: What?
DY: Yeah, Ching-a-ling group.
BY: Oh, interesting. And so you got involved with the JACL youth group when you were a teenager?
DY: Right.
BY: Were your parents involved in the JACL?
DY: No.
BY: Okay, all right. And were there any other Japanese or Japanese American community activities that your family participated in?
DY: No.
BY: And so it sounds like you were definitely in the minority growing up.
DY: Yes.
BY: How was that for you?
DY: [Inaudible].
BY: Can you elaborate on that?
DY: Well, the white kids' fathers fought in the war with the Japanese, and so I was the token Japanese. So prejudice transferred over to me. So I got in some fights. The interesting thing is, later on in the church, the religious education director asked me to represent a minority, what it's like growing up. And there was a Black woman who was another token minority, and she was saying how it was during the integration, and the boys got in fights. And I said, "Wait a minute, I have something to say. I was there, I saw the fights, and all I can feel is envy." Envy, because all I saw is when they got in a fight, there was somebody watching their back.� And when I got in a fight, I had to have a wall between my back. And so they had the protection of having somebody on their side.
BY: And you didn't have that. So how did you feel about being Japanese American? Were you proud of it, did you wish you weren't Japanese American? What were your feelings about that?
DY: All I can say is they didn't like me. Not from what I did, but the fact that I couldn't change that I was Japanese.
BY: It sounds tough.
<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.
<Begin Segment 5>
BY: So tell me about the schools you attended. What schools did you go to, elementary school, high school and so on?
DY: Bradley Elementary. It was right across the street from our house.
BY: And how about, then did you go to junior high school or high school?
DY: Yeah.
BY: Also in Bethesda?
DY: Right.
BY: And what was the racial makeup of those schools?
DY: Me and all whites.
BY: So no other people of color, really?
DY: This is during the integration, there were Blacks.
BY: And how did everyone get along?
DY: Well, it wasn't very nice.
BY: Okay. So did you like school?
DY: No.
BY: [Laughs] Okay, all right.
<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.
<Begin Segment 6>
BY: And so after you graduated from high school, what did you do?
DY: I went to junior college, Montgomery junior college, and that was in Takoma Park, Maryland. And then I went to University of Maryland to study engineering, and then I flunked out, and then I volunteered for the army.
BY: And how old were you when that happened?
DY: About twenty-two.
BY: Okay. And so where did you do your basic training?
DY: Fort Dix.
BY: Fort Dix, all right. And so what was it like being in the army? Were you again in the minority, and how were you treated?
DY: I was treated like everybody else. However, I completed basic training and I was transferred over to Fort Devens, Massachusetts, in an army security agency. They were lined up to get our bedding, and the lieutenant looked at me and says, "You were in the Menehune Platoon." And he says, "What the hell is the Menehune Platoon?" Well, if you don't want to be in Menehune, you're on KP. Looks like I'm a Menehune. Turned out that the Menehune were a platoon with Japanese Americans, and they played aggressors to the training. So we played the Viet Cong.
BY: So you were the bad guys.
DY: I was the bad guys, right.
BY: So Menehune is a Hawaiian word. Was it a platoon made up of Hawaiian soldiers?
DY: Right, and one Papago Indian.
BY: Okay, all right. And you were trained as what at that time? What were you being trained in?
DY: In electronics, technician.
BY: All right. So you got this specialized training and then what happened?
DY: Well, they gave me a form, your first choice of assignment says, "Send me to Germany." Second choice, "Send me to Germany," third choice, "Send me to Germany."
BY: Why did you want to go to Germany in particular?
DY: Because it's geographically as far to be stationed as for Vietnam. So I figured that it would be inconvenient for them to switch me to Vietnam because I had a problem. I realized that during the training, my mind didn't know the good guys from the bad guys. I was the enemy. Later on, I figured out, if you look on the website, look up "Stanford Prison Experiment." The guy came up with the idea, okay, students, half of them were guards, half of them were prisoners. And they got through one week of the experiment and the guy's wife said, "You got to shut it down. People are reacting negatively to the experiment." And they figured out that your brain, you know you're being pretend, but you role play as a prisoner or role play as a guard, your brain trains yourself to be a guard or to be... and I did that for a year. So I was a danger if I was assigned to Vietnam. If somebody looked at me, in his view, Vietnam or GI. And you know what he's thinking. So I made up my mind, says, okay, for self preservation. You look at the tip of his rifle, if it starts moving in your direction, you have no choice, shoot him. It was a long time for me to say that was a decision that I made for fear that people would react, but now I'm comfortable making that decision, saying that.
BY: So it sounds like, growing up as one of the only Japanese Americans in Maryland, in Bethesda, going to predominately white school, and then going into the army and being forced to play the role of the Viet Cong, really had a deep psychological impact on you.
DY: Yeah.
BY: So you decided, "I want to get as far away from that as I can," so you went to Germany.
DY: Right.
BY: Yeah. So and so what did you do in Germany?
DY: I repaired equipment so the army can listen to the Russians listen to us, so we monitored the communications.
BY: And were things better for you in Germany?
DY: What?
BY: Were things better for you in Germany? Did you like it?
DY: I liked Germany, but I was in the army. The desirable thing, to be in Germany and not be in the army.
BY: Okay.
<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.
<Begin Segment 7>
BY: So I understand that you met your wife while you were in Germany. Can you tell me about that?
DY: She was a student in Berkeley and an exchange student.
BY: And how did you meet her?
DY: She was dating my roommate.
BY: So you swooped in and took her away, huh?
DY: Well, sort of.
BY: Okay, all right. So what's her name?
DY: Karen.
BY: What is her full name?
DY: Karen Moya Bendix.
BY: So is she Japanese American?
DY: No, she's Jewish, Jewish American.
BY: In Germany, but well after the war.
DY: Right.
BY: So how was it dating someone of another race in Germany? No big deal?
DY: Well, basically we didn't date much.
BY: Okay. And so when and where did you get married?
DY: 1970. And we got married in Switzerland. Because it was Tuesday, and Americans got married on Tuesday. So they just pulled out the file and put the paperwork in the file. They used paperwork, all the Americans.
BY: What do you mean by all the Americans got married on Tuesday?
DY: The bureaucrats, if you want to get married in Switzerland, you got married on Tuesday.
BY: All right. So then after you were married, did you stay in Germany for a while, or when did you return to the United States?
DY: Probably a year.
BY: And where was your wife from? Where had she grown up?
DY: She grew up in Berkeley, California.
<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.
<Begin Segment 8>
BY: So after you got out of the army, where did you go?
DY: Back to Bethesda, I worked construction with my dad's company.
BY: So your parents were still there.
DY: Right.
BY: And how long did you do that for?
DY: Probably eight years.
BY: Okay, so a bit. And what did Karen do during that time?
DY: She went to school and set up a vocational rehab agency. She was trained as a rehab counselor.
BY: And she set up her own company?
DY: Right, eventually.
BY: And did you have kids?
DY: Yeah.
BY: Can you tell me their names and when they were born?
DY: Kay, who was named after my grandfather. So she was born in 1970. And Charlotte, I think that was four years later, and Douglas was born a year after that.
BY: Okay, so you have three kids. And so you were working in construction and your wife was a vocational counselor, and did you continue to work as a contractor?
DY: Well, Reagan with his Star Wars project messed up the economy, so we closed up the company. Father retired and I went to be an auto mechanic. Yes, I had no idea how to be an auto mechanic, just that I maintained van and trucks and experienced. So I started from scratch.
BY: And did you continue to do that?
DY: Yes. And one day, my wife came home, said that she had to hire an office manager to do the paperwork, but she couldn't do the paperwork and do her work at the same time. And I said, "Well, I can do your office management. It will cost you more to pay an office manager than I'm getting as a mechanic." So we did that. About three months later she said, "Well, are you happy, what you're doing?" And I said, "Nobody ever asked me that I was happy with my job." I said, "Let me think about that." And so a couple days later, I said, "Well, I've got an answer for if I'm happy as an office manager." Says, "Yeah, what's your answer?" "Well, it sure beats setting yourself on fire with gasoline for a living." And that's what auto mechanics do every moment of the day, with somebody next to you, you make a mistake, and all of a sudden you're... used to say suddenly you're a Buddhist monk, but people don't remember that they're setting themselves on fire with gasoline for a protest. But I don't say that anymore.
BY: So then you became the office manager?
DY: Right.
BY: And how long did you do that for?
DY: 'Til I had the stroke.
BY: Oh, okay. So when was that?
DY: That's twenty years ago.
<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.
<Begin Segment 9>
BY: Okay. So let me ask you about your life in Bethesda with your wife and your kids. Did you have any contact or were you involved at all in the Japanese or Asian American community there? Was there an Asian American community there?
DY: Not that I was aware of.
BY: Okay. So what did you do in your spare time? Who did you hang out with and do things with?
DY: No, I didn't hang out with anyone in particular, I just worked and came home.
BY: And what activities, what did you do in your spare time?
DY: I worked, slept, go to work.
BY: So I know that you are a painter. When did you take up painting?
DY: My daughter, Charlotte, was interested in painting. And so she'd get assignments on site, and I felt uncomfortable about her setting up an easel in downtown Bethesda and painting, so I set up a lawn chair and read a book nearby. And she got tired of that, and eventually she set up an easel and set up another easel and said, "Why don't you do painting?" And she walked over to me, handed me a brush, "Here, paint." So the rest is history.
BY: So she is the one who got you started with that?
DY: Yeah.
BY: Okay, that's great. And then so how long did you live in Washington, D.C., and why did you leave?
DY: All my life. My daughter Kay came up with the idea that... my son was, had a disability. So we were taking care of Doug, and she said, "Well, if something happens to you or Mom, you can't take of Doug, how about if you build a granny suite in our backyard and Doug can stay there, and you move out to Seattle?" So that was the game plan. So we found Lakeshore, and we flew out to Lakeshore and Karen moved in temporarily. And so I flew back, sold the house, the granny suite got finished, and we moved out, Doug and I, flew out, and I moved into Lakeshore. So my experience living in Seattle is Lakeshore.
BY: [Laughs] Okay. So I just wanted to ask you, so how do you think your family's experience during the war differs from the typical Japanese American family. Have you ever given any thought to that, about how that experience was different for your family?
DY: Well, obviously we weren't in camp.
[Interruption]
BY: So do you have any grandchildren?
DY: Yes.
BY: So thinking back on your life, do you have any advice or words of wisdom or values that you would like to pass on to your children and grandchildren?
DY: Well, when you're a parent, you "do no harm."
BY: Is there anything else that you would like to share with us? Did you cover all the things on your piece of paper there?
DY: That's my grandfather's name.
BY: Oh, okay. Is there anything else that you would like to add?
DY: Do the best you can.
BY: Sounds like that's what you've done. All right, thank you, David, for your time.
<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.