Densho Digital Archive
Topaz Museum Collection
Title: Norman I. Hirose Interview
Narrator: Norman I. Hirose
Interviewer: Tom Ikeda
Location: Emeryville, California
Date: July 31, 2008
Densho ID: denshovh-hnorman-01-0020

<Begin Segment 20>

NH: And as a matter of fact, I taught, I was in the senior, when I became a senior, I taught plane geometry, and I had five classes of plane geometry.

TI: And what level did you teach at?

NH: Tenth grade.

TI: Tenth grade?

NH: Yeah, plane geometry, tenth grade.

TI: So you were just a couple years older than...

NH: Yeah, we were in the same, I hadn't even graduated high school yet, and I was teaching there.

TI: So how was that? How was that teaching sophomores?

NH: It was fine, except they sure gave me a hard time. "Okay you guys, come on, be quiet. We got to do something here, get something done." Then, so I had to plead to their, "Let's cooperate. I'm not any, I'm only a little bit older than you are, and I don't know an awful lot. But we have to learn this stuff, so let's learn it," and it worked.

TI: So you were just pretty honest with them, that you didn't, you weren't much older, knew much more, but, "Let's just all learn from this."

NH: I had learned geometry two years before even they did.

TI: And so why were you chosen to be one of the teachers?

NH: I don't know. They just selected me.

TI: So you must have been a, a good student.

NH: I must have been pretty good in math, anyhow. Well, I was involved in all kind of things. We got involved in student government, and that was really fun. I don't know if you know him, but Moss Ashizawa, he runs the Soko Hardware in San Francisco, that's his store now. But he, he was the, our student leader. He was a year older than myself, and he led us in setting up student government. And we argued about this and argued about that, should we have a student senate, and everything. But that was the fun part of it. We finally did organize some sort of student government.

[Interruption]

TI: So you had, so you were both a student and a teacher.

NH: Yeah.

TI: And by being a teacher, were you paid as a teacher?

NH: Oh, yeah. Did I get paid? I don't think I got paid. I might have gotten paid, I don't remember that part. Anyhow, teachers were paid sixteen dollars a month. My dad was paid sixteen dollars a month.

TI: Because it seems like you should have been paid, you're teaching five classes, so that's like a full load.

NH: But it only lasted for one semester and they finally got a teacher, regular teacher from somewhere, I don't know where. And so I went back to class. [Laughs] Anyhow, I finished up my senior year with all my credits and everything, and they let me go.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright ©2008 Densho and the Topaz Museum. All Rights Reserved.