Densho Digital Archive - Mas Hashimoto Interview (denshovh-hmas-01-0029)

<Begin Segment 29>

TI: So I wanted to go back to when you returned to Watsonville. And I'm curious now, when you go to school, I want to get a sense of how good the education was in Poston. So one way of finding out is when you started school back in Watsonville, how was it? How were you able to keep up with the other students?

MH: Well, you know, I really didn't have second and third grades. I draw a complete blank except for the stool. Outside of that, I have no idea who my classmates and teacher were and such. I could remember kindergarten, first grade, fourth grade, but second and third, blank. When I come back to the fifth grade, I'm so far behind in my schoolwork that Miss Herbert, my teacher, she stayed behind for a half hour every day for the longest time until I can catch up. Catch up in my vocabulary, arithmetic, math and so forth, 'til I could catch up. So I'm very grateful to her. I'm very grateful to the teaching profession; I became a teacher because I thought it was important to repay a debt.

TI: And what about your classmates? How did they welcome you back, especially the ones you knew before you left?

MH: The only one I really knew before I left was Tony Hernandez. And Tony and I, we had one thing in common, we're both so small compared to everybody else. So, but then after high school, he's over six feet, I'm still small. But I don't hold it against him, it wasn't his fault that he grew so much. But my classmates are among my dearest friends. We're having a class reunion, fifty-five years, I'm on the committee to welcome back our good friends.

TI: It must have been such a confusing time for people, though, thinking back that you're, you were gone, you came back, and did people ask you what it was like?

MH: Yeah, what happened. "What happened to you?" and you try to explain.

TI: And how would you explain? Were you embarrassed about it?

MH: Well, we'd just tell 'em it was the war. But you know, the thing is that, quote, we "suffered" while we were in camp, but the people on the outside, they didn't have it that good either, you know. I mean, if you study the homefront, speed limit is 35 miles an hour, the gasoline rationing is three gallons per car per week. There's rationing of bananas and meats and whatever. They didn't have it that good, either.

TI: So everyone had a, had to sacrifice.

MH: Everybody was, you know... in the war. We were, in camp we were helping with the war effort, with victory gardens we were planting, we had scrap metal drives with the Boy Scouts and such, we were all helping on the homefront in camp.

TI: I'm curious, now when you go to high school, in your class, how many Japanese Americans were there?

MH: Fortunately for me, I had my brother who was a senior when I was a freshman and such, and he did well, and so the rest of us were... and we had the same teachers as my older brothers. The teacher turnover wasn't, wasn't that great. It was always the same, same teachers. So that was, that was good. There was a good feeling back, we were welcomed back. So our high school experience is going to be good, going to be good, thanks to the teachers. We found out that there were a few that were racist. When I joined the staff at Watsonville High School as a teacher, I was the first person of color to be hired by the high school, district, in 1960. I'm sitting and I'm listening to the faculty, and I'm going, "Wow, I can't believe this. I had, I had that teacher, I didn't know that teacher was a racist."

TI: Because behind the doors...

MH: Behind the door, and they start speaking about Mexicans and whatever, and they're so proud to be a member of the Elk Club and DeMolay or whatever.

TI: And so I'm curious, so when you hear that, as a rookie teacher, how do you handle that? What do you do?

MH: Well, the first thing I did was I looked to my other teachers who were my friends, and I said, "What's going on?" And they explained, "You didn't know?"

TI: So high school life sounded like it was pretty good for you.

MH: It was very good, very good.

TI: So I'm curious, at what point did, did girls become interesting to you? Was it high school or even earlier?

MH: Girls? You know, when I speak to third graders, one time a third grader asked, did I have a girlfriend in camp? And I'm going, "Are you kidding? I was poor. Do you know how expensive girlfriends are?" And the kids, third graders are laughing. We were poor; we couldn't afford girlfriends.

TI: So in high school, not too much dating yet?

MH: I didn't have a car until I was twenty-five years of age.

TI: That's good, I gotta remember that with my kids. [Laughs] So after high school, you completed high school, what happens next?

MH: Well, thank goodness for junior colleges, because we could afford that. And then I went on to San Jose State, graduated with a teaching credential. Now, most of my friends went into dentistry, engineering and pharmacy and such, but I chose a different field. So I had a choice between marine biology and social studies, and I thought, "You know what? People are more interesting than jellyfish and whatever," and so I chose social studies, and I've never regretted it.