Densho Digital Archive - Bill Hashizume Interview (denshovh-hbill

<Begin Segment 9>

NI: And what kind of aspirations did you have before you went to Japan?

BH: I wanted to, I wanted to go to university but to be an engineer or what, I wasn't too clear. But even when I went to Japan, I wasn't too clear. But it was my brother that suggested I go to a technical school rather than a commercial school, being that I was strong in physics, chemistry and science subjects, and math. After I graduated from -- well, the war already started when I was in the fifth year of middle school, and I had to, you know, I had to... in order to, in order to keep on, why, I had to enter a higher school. Now, I chose, I made, I wrote an entrance examination to three schools. One was the, one was the Kansai Gakuin higher commercial school, which was an affiliate of the middle school that I attended. The other one was Osaka School of Foreign Languages, and the other one, the third one was Kobe Technical College. And I already had admission to the Kansai Gakuin commercial school, higher commercial school as a result I was, my grades in middle school were sufficient.

NI: From Canada?

BH: No, no, my grades in Kansai Gakuin middle school were sufficient to enroll me into the school without entrance examinations. And I applied, well, I wrote the entrance examination to, for Kobe college, and I knew I was thing because I answered everything. I knew I had to, I'll be in the top ninety percent or something like that, because... but I chose the thing because it was a government-run institution. Kobe, Kobe Technical College. It was a government-run institution, and the tuitions fee were a third of what I had to pay if I attended Kansai Gakuin higher commercial school.

NI: That was a private school?

BH: Yeah, private school. But I chose thing because of the cheapness and I was more, I was more technically oriented than commercially oriented. And I spent, it was a three-year course, but because of the war, they shrunk the course to two and a half years. And in September I graduated, September 1944 I graduated. And now, it's either, once I graduated, it was either I had to go into the army or navy, and I chose the navy. It was more open-minded, rather than the army, it was pretty strict. But once I joined the navy and took basic training, why, sure, it's like any boot camp and things. Sure it's hard, but heck, I had farming experience. I says, if others can take it, I can take it, too, and that's the philosophy I took.