<Begin Segment 25>

SY: And then, and then you ended up going to what high school?

BW: San Fernando High School. So I was reunited with some of my Japanese school friends who went to San Fernando Junior, they went to San Fernando High School. So that was fun. I instantly had like thirty Japanese American friends that I knew from Japanese school there, and so I was quite happy going to school.

SY: Did you find yourself socializing more with the other Japanese Americans than you did...

BW: Yes. We kind of ate lunch together, did things together.

SY: So you were very comfortable with your Japanese American friends, as opposed to... or was there a difference? Did you feel a difference?

BW: I was very comfortable and they were my friends of choice, but I also had some non-Japanese friends. One of my best friends was Frank Jones, he's a half black, half Latino fellow, and we still keep in touch. There was a Caucasian girl. Her name was Weaver, so Watanabe and Weaver, we always, or often, got seated next to each other, so we became very good friends. And it was around that time that I kind of became aware of my own racism about myself.

SY: And what was that, what was that about? How did that...

BW: Well, it's kind of, you're growing up, you don't really think about it, but I remember my friend Frank Jones, he invited me to a party at his house and I found myself not wanting to go. And so I said no, then, but then I thought, "Why don't I want to go? He's one of my best friends." We used, we were together every day. And I, as I thought about it and thought about it, I realized I didn't feel comfortable going into a house with a bunch of black folks and Latino folks, 'cause his father was black, his mother was Hispanic. So I don't know if it was racism or just being uncomfortable being in this different culture, but I didn't want to go, and I felt bad. I thought, "He's my friend, I should go." So I realized there's this complex that I had in me. And then my friend Melody Weaver, I remember one time she put her hand on my arm and I pulled my arm away, 'cause when I saw her white hand -- and my arm was dark 'cause we did work in the fields sometimes and I would get tanned during the summers, so I'd be pretty dark -- but I was afraid she would see how white she was and how dark I was and she would not want to touch me. It was kind of weird 'cause she was already touching me, 'cause she's a very friendly, outgoing person. I never felt anything from her, but I did. I didn't want her touch to me. I was afraid she'd see how white she was compared to me. And I thought, "Why would I feel that way?" And then I realized I elevated whiteness versus darkness, and white was good but dark was not, and when that struck me I thought, oh my gosh, I'm just, I'm just so, I couldn't believe that's how I felt.

SY: Do you remember any of those conversations at home that dealt with race?

BW: No, although my father felt Japanese were the best people on earth. [Laughs] He really felt that.

SY: In fact, maybe conversation's the wrong word, but was there feeling, I mean, did you, was there any kind of feeling that there were, there was a hierarchy of race, races?

BW: We didn't interact as the family with much people, many people outside of Japanese and whites. But I do remember one time there was a Filipino man who, he might've been a salesman or doing something, but he got into a big argument with my uncle. And we were all in the, I remember, I can still remember, we're all in the shed, packing shed, packing the flowers, and my uncle told this Filipino man, "We don't like you and if you don't leave I'm gonna get my gun and shoot you." Which you don't hear every day, but my uncle, he was a soldier and he was a very tough man. I wouldn't mess with him. But I thought, well, I felt sorry for this guy who was treated this way, but, and my uncle made some kind of anti-Filipino slur. I don't remember what he said. So there was this sense Japanese were the best, everybody else was not as good, but it never came out that overtly. That's the only instance I can think of where they said something against another ethnic person.

SY: So your, there were not other workers on the farm who were not Japanese? They were all, pretty much everybody who worked on the farm, on your family farm?

BW: We hired a lot of Mexican laborers from the labor camps.

SY: But no interaction with them other than in the fields?

BW: No.

SY: And there was never a sense of, "We're better than they are"?

BW: You know, they might have felt it, but it wasn't overt. I mean, my parents, I think, treated them pretty well.

SY: And you never felt it?

BW: I never felt it. In fact, I always felt like, "Gosh, they're so hardworking. I can't keep up with them." [Laughs] So in some ways I felt like, yeah, they're such hardworking people.

<End Segment 25> - Copyright &copy; 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.