Densho Digital Archive - Joe Seto Interview (denshovh-sjoe

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EB: Did anything, some things become more important to you after camp compared to before just because of your experience, your variety of experiences?

JS: Well, I've been interested in social action. For example, in this document, which I'm going to leave with you, I was involved in getting my high school diploma, which we didn't receive in 1942, together with my Japanese classmates, and I don't know if you recall, we may have briefly talked about that. And fifty-nine years after graduation we finally got our high school diplomas. And then the main thrust of my interest in pursuing that matter was the valedictorian of Lincoln High School, the graduation class of 680-plus students, that year was to be George Kurose, a Nisei. That year, because it was a Japanese, the faculty in February of 1942 decided -- they already knew he was going to be valedictorian -- they eliminated the valedictorian. And so I wanted to do justice to George and wanted us to get a diploma. So together with Dr. Magden, who was the author of Furusato, he wrote a book in 1998 about the Japanese in Pierce County, the county that encompassed Tacoma. And through his help and the former superintendent, the Tacoma School Board decided to give us a diploma fifty-nine years later. And then sixty years after graduation, at the class reunion of Lincoln High School, their 60th class reunion, George Kurose, for some fortunate reason, his children suggested and encouraged him to attend the reunion. And his good friend George Hayashi, a classmate, strongly encouraged him. And they attended the 60th reunion. And when our class president saw the replies from former graduates, he saw the name George Kurose was going to attend, so he arranged with the superintendent of the Tacoma Public Schools that the class be allowed to award George Kurose the valedictorian medallion, which the superintendent approved of. And much to the surprise of George Kurose, he received the valedictorian medallion sixty years late. So I was, played a very active role in that. Then as you know, my wife is very active about historical matters, and she's just in the process of submitting her book to a publisher about her parents. (Nisei Mom and Issei Father). And we were very much interested in the patriotism memorial in Washington, D.C., I think, and we donated to that, and we attended the ceremony where they officially installed it or whatever you want to call it. And we donated toward the Japanese American Museum. And so I'm glad to hear that you are involved in the sorts of things that we're interested in preserving.

As I mentioned, every year I give a talk at the local high school history class, I've been doing this about ten years. I give a lecture about my experiences during World War II. And last year I heard from the high school at Inglewood High, in the graduation forum that the students made out at the end of the year for this high school history teaching. They said that the best thing that they had for the school year was my lecture. So that made me happy. So I'm very grateful to people like yourself and Richard, that you're preserving the heritage at Manzanar camp. And it's nice to hear that this is the most successful of all the camps. I think that's very important.

EB: Uh-huh, I do, too. It's a pleasure to...

JS: And when I, on occasion, the people that I come in contact with at the university, when the opportunity arises they ask me about it, and so they're very... most of them were not aware that we were placed in concentration camps, so they were very interested. In fact, one of my colleagues, my successor at the university, her son did a junior high school project and he interviewed me. And he got an A grade on his interview.

EB: So I was thinking of your career. I remember when I interviewed your wife, she was telling me about your sabbaticals in Germany.

JS: Yes, I spent my four sabbaticals in Germany.

EB: Can you tell me a little bit more about that and what it was like living in Germany?

JS: Oh, we enjoyed it immensely, the entire family. I was fortunate that I got the first sabbatical on 1965, I got a United Health Foundation award, and they paid for the expenses and travel and everything for the entire family. The second sabbatical in 1972, I got the Alexander Humboldt award. It's for a senior scientist, and they had just inaugurated that program in appreciation to the United States for the Marshall Plan. I think you are aware of the Marshall Plan. And this entailed the awarding of sixty scientists a year, senior scientists, and they supported my sabbatical year. So it was a very generous award, financial award in Germany in 1972. 1979, the third sabbatical I got the Visiting Professorship Award from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, it's the equivalent of the National Science Foundation. And then the fourth sabbatical, I got a return award and the visiting professorship from the German National Science Foundation. And I've been invited back every year since 1987 for annual research conferences with a colleague from the University of Giessen, and a colleague from Japan who was the head of the virus research and vaccine control in Japan, and now he's one of the six or twelve members of the World Health Organization for influenza virus. So the German government paid for my yearly research conference back to Germany 'til my host died three years ago. After that, we were invited back for a special lecture under the generous support of the German government. So in all, I've been to Germany thirty times.

EB: Oh, wow, quite traveled.

JS: Thank you for the German Science Foundation, they supported all my travels.

EB: That's wonderful.

JS: So my children went through the German schools. The last time my children went, my daughter went to the university and my son went to the gymnasium.

EB: Uh-huh, wonderful. What a great experience.

JS: Very fortunate.

EB: Yeah. Let's see. Have you been back to the site of Tule Lake or Minidoka?

JS: No. The only place is Manzanar where my wife was, and then to the Puyallup Assembly Center outside Tacoma. I wanted to see the plaque that they placed, and it's in a very obscure place and you could hardly see it. [Laughs]