Densho Digital Archive - George Katagiri Interview (denshovh-kgeorge

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SG: So after Japan, you went back to Minnesota and studied?

GK: Yeah. I went to, this is in 1946, and in nineteen, two years later, my fiance graduated from nurse's training, so she was able to work full time. So I was still at the University of Oregon. I must have been a junior at the time, and we got married in Chicago, and that was in '48. In 1949, we had our first son, and we lived in the University Village which was kind of a luxury apartment for GI families. We lived in a Quonset hut or a barrack. Only this time, the barracks had separate rooms. It had a kitchen and it had the bedroom and it had a bath, and so it wasn't like the internment camps at all. So we were living in luxury there at the University Village. In 1950, I graduated, and I had a degree in, with credentials to teach science in the secondary schools. And so I applied to school districts all over the United States, in Denver and Salt Lake and the towns in Northern Minnesota, and I knew that I had to mention that I was of Japanese ancestry because you didn't want to surprise anybody if they hired you, and I didn't get a single acceptance. And I don't know how many letters I wrote, but I just figured they were not hiring minority teachers at that time. This is 1950. And so I enrolled into graduate school at the University of Minnesota and started my graduate work. And during that quarter, the assistant superintendent from the Portland Public Schools was circulating among the universities and interviewing some of the graduates. And he stopped at the University of Minnesota, and I had an interview. And he said, "George, if you would come to Portland and go through a special program to get your elementary teaching credentials, we have a job for you." And I thought to myself and I says, "Well, I don't have much choice. I'm supposed to be a high school science teacher, but I'll convert to being an elementary school teacher."

And so in 1950, we drove out to Portland. I went through this special transition program, and I was enjoying it. And here comes the fall of 1950, and I get my first assignment, and it's at the very school I went to for eight years as a kid. And so there I was at Abernathy School again and very familiar with the building. And three of my old teachers were still there, and they looked at me and said, "Georgie's come back to us." So I had a delightful time. I taught all different kinds of subjects over a period of six years from third graders through the eighth graders and was thoroughly enjoying my experience. And finally in the fifth year at the, the principal of Cleveland High School, which was the nearest high school, came down and said that, "We'd like to have you become a social studies teacher at Cleveland High School and coach basketball." And that was a big joke because, I had no experience in coaching let alone basketball. So I told the principal, "Well, I really appreciate, I'm flattered by the invitation, but I'm teaching social studies now in the elementary grades. I'm really enjoying it. And if I'm going to change, I just want to change into my strong suit." And she said, "Thank you," and she left. Well, the following year, the next principal who was a Doctor Malo came down. I don't know where they got my name, but they were after me. And they, he said, "Well, George, we have a science position open for you. It's a chemistry position." And I said, "Gee, I'm really flattered, but my strong suit is biology. And if I'm going to make a change, I'd rather change into my strong suit." And he says, "Well, we don't have any biology positions open." And a couple weeks later, he came back. And he said, "George, you can have your damn biology." And I thought, whoopee, this is what I trained for. Here I was having a delightful time teaching elementary kids, and then I get this invitation to teach biology in high school. So that fall, I went up there. And what I find out is that he made the department chairman, the science department chairman, move from biology to chemistry so that I could come and teach the biology, and I didn't know this. And so when I got there, the department chairman looked at me and says, "So, you're the guy that's causing all this trouble in my department." And as it turned out, we became the best of friends, and our science department in a year or two became one of the leading departments in the city, and I was just having a great time teaching biology at the high school level.