<Begin Segment 19>

RP: I wanted to mention that your mother who lived to the ripe old age of one hundred and three...

MH: Yeah.

RP: Was able to finally become an American citizen.

MH: Yes.

RP: When the law was changed.

MH: When the law was changed, I guess it was called the McCarthy whatever.

RP: Walter McCarren?

MH: Walter McCarren.

RP: Immigration act. What was that like? Did you, did you help her out with her...

MH: You know, I was going to school at the time in college. 'Cause that was nineteen-fifty whatever, in the '50s. And she was too young to take the test, the naturalization test, in Japanese. She had to take it in English. And so she had a mentor and he came and, and you know, taught her what she needed to know, that she could pass the test in English. And she did. Boy did we ever rejoice, I'm telling you.

RP: Do you remember that? That was June 13, 1957.

MH: Right. Yeah. And I didn't get to go to it because I was working, but you know she, she was one happy woman to have passed her test in English. And I don't know if I ever told this or wrote about this, but somehow the teachers in Milwakie, when they started, the Japanese community started sending kids to school, they really felt that the mothers needed to learn English. And so one of the teachers decided to start an English class for the mothers and she met at the old Japanese school that we had. And taught the ladies in Milwakie and it's, for some reason it was just the ladies and, the mothers and not the guys. 'Cause I think the men all could speak English 'cause they had to go out in the public to do business. And this woman came and she taught my mother how to read the primer up to second grade reader. Isn't that amazing? I mean, I think of all the ESL students and if someone could have done that for their mothers... but it was all, it was all volunteer. Yeah, and I just think wow.

RP: It's pretty exceptional. I never heard that before.

MH: That's right. So, this was in little Milwakie, yeah. I just had to tell you that story.

RP: Thank you.

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 2010 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.