<Begin Segment 34>

LH: Just a few more questions. I want to go to your life after you got your degree and starting teaching at Franklin. What was it like for you to be a Japanese American teacher in this high school where you have a very diverse population? And what was that like, especially at the time?

FF: Well, to me, at Franklin was ideal, because we were, actually at that time, we were one-third Asian, one-third black, and one-third white. And I think that was the most beautiful time of my teaching career, and I enjoyed it very much, 'cause as I came to Franklin I felt real strong about, you know, being part of the community, being part of the scenario. And I really felt this was my niche. I really -- and then to be asked to come to be an assistant basketball coach at the time, and then to convert into the head coach job -- I felt real fortunate. And I think that, that opportunity was very special. I really felt it was like a dream come true, 'cause I got to teach and coach. On that standpoint, I felt fortunate, and I think what it did for me was just -- when you think you found your niche, and you like the students, you still had to learn to deal with a lot of factors in teaching as I understood. I think you had to be sensitive to the minority scene, laterally speaking with the "other Asians," you know, the Cambodians, the Vietnamese, the Indochinese, the Chinese American, the Japanese Americans. And I really felt I learned a lot and I think that's what made my life probably more interesting to, to continue on in education, because that was so fulfilling and a challenge and to even be a coach and to succeed in handling minority kids to succeed and to use psychology to be what you want them to be, and to be proud and to... I think my values had to be sort of strong about what's right and wrong, because even the black students were very concerned about leadership, if I'm sensitive to the minority scene. And in the case of "blackism," of course, there's blacks and Asians, there was Asians on my team. The irony of that whole issue is that the black parents didn't give me a hard time. [Laughs] There was this one Asian, Nisei parent, that got on my case about their son not getting to play. Well, I had a nice talk, but I, I thought that was real funny, 'cause here I'm expecting whites or the blacks to get on my case, but it was a Nisei. But we worked it out. I still maintain my hold on what I felt my values and my direction was. It was sort of a test on my perseverance and attitudes of what I thought was right and wrong, and hopefully I think I made the right choices always, and never tried to get in a bad scenario of being with the community or the kids or... it was tough enough to teach and coach. But teaching was really fun for me.

One nice story about teaching is that when -- I could talk to you about the kid in -- Ruby Shu was a doctor, Ruby Inouye. Her son was taking my class, Evan, and he, he's a bright -- he went to Harvard and got his degree and everything and he, he went into, of all things, graphic arts after. His mother was thinking, "How come you didn't go into being a doctor or something?" "Well Mom, you're dealing with doctors, you gotta deal with illnesses, and people that need help. But when I took Mr. Fujii's art class," he said, "he made it seem so much fun that I wanted to get into something I wanted to have fun at." And I thought that was so funny. I said, "Gee Dr. Ruby, you're not mad at me 'cause your son went into" -- I had no choice, I had no control over that. And I think that made me feel real good that someone of his stature who was real bright, and Harvard grad and who became, who went into graphics. He, I think he was in ethnic studies and then he was in architecture, architecture as well, but mostly the academia of architecture and graphics, that was his combination basically. But, but he's a pretty fine kid. Married and have children and I'm proud but... no, Dr. Ruby didn't hold it against me, but I think at the time, she really wished he would have been a doctor, I guess, and he could have been, I'm sure. He's quite a bright kid.

<End Segment 34> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.