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BN: So when you came into UCLA, what were you thinking in terms of your course of study?

JF: [Laughs].

BN: Or like many entering...

JF: What was I thinking or what were my parents thinking?

BN: Maybe both.

JF: Because there's a difference. So my parents, my mom would drop little hints, like, "Oh, you're so good with your hands. You should be a dentist." [Laughs] Which I think I even said that to Michael at one point. Yeah, so not knowing anything about dentistry or what's required of it, I register as a pre-dental major. And for some reason, they had Physics I, A, B and C as a required series in my freshman year. So I lasted through A by the skin of my teeth. By B, I already knew it wasn't for me, but I hung in there. And then by C, I just decided, okay, this is not working, I'm changing my major. So I did what everybody else does and became a psychology major, which is what people pick when they don't know what else to pick. So that's what I was for the next year and a half until the EthnoCommunications opportunity came up. I'd always been taking pictures, still photographs, primarily black and white, and doing my own developing, I forgot, some B-22 kind of enlarger in my parents' bathroom. And so we'd do all that stuff as a hobby, and it was good enough to get me into the Ethno program. I don't know how rigorous the entrance requirements were at the time.

BN: But you're saying that, though, was like a year and a half or so later?

JF: Yes.

BN: And then you just mentioned you were roommates with Bruce Iwasaki?

JF: Yes.

BN: Was that...

JF: Sophomore year.

BN: Okay, so that was later.

JF: Yes.

BN: So what drew you to these people and the political and intellectual environment of this whole Asian American thing, what was the draw?

JF: I think for me it was... and I'm pretty sure, well, I made the assumption that the others I hung with felt the same. It was, the knowledge that we had gained about the history of minorities, the way that they were mistreated since the founding fathers landed in Plymouth as far as that goes, as far as native peoples goes. So it's so clear to see the historical treatment of all minority peoples in the United States and how all of us can share stories about the way our ancestors were mistreated. And so I felt like, okay, I'm among kindred spirits. So what they were involved in, I kind of gravitated towards. So I'm embarrassed to be the subject of a Gidra interview because I wasn't really one of the... I didn't think about let's start this newspaper up and try and change people's minds and stuff. But I was contributing, so I'll take that credit. But it was more people like Mike and Tracy, the original founders, those people were the instigators and originators.

BN: And at that time, also, that was right at the beginning when the whole Ethnic Studies centers were forming in Campbell Hall and all of that. Did you take early Asian American classes?

JF: No, I didn't. [Laughs] I wound up just, I guess, Ron Takaki taught a history class there, but that was about it as far as I can remember. I wasn't really big into school. So I hate to say that on tape, can we delete that? [Laughs] Don't want my grandkids, if there are any in my future, to hear that. But yeah, it was a good for, the relationships lasted a lifetime, obviously, so in that respect, I loved school. It was valuable.

BN: You often learn more out of class than in class.

JF: Precisely, precisely.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2023 Densho. All Rights Reserved.