Densho Digital Archive - George Hara Interview (denshovh-hgeorge

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GH: The other interesting thing that happened in Ohio Wesleyan was I took beginning speech, speech 101 or something like that and the lady professor, one of our assignments, we had to tell an anecdote or something humorous. Anyway, it came my turn to give my little talk, and I caught the funny bone of her, and she saw something in me that, you know, thought there's potential, and she called me aside and said they're having a school play, and one of the parts is a part of an Eskimo called Ufty. It is a really big role in this play. I forgot who wrote it or what. Anyway, she encouraged me to, you know, try out. She didn't think I'd have any trouble, and I wrestled with that, you know, should I or shouldn't I because my experience and time from Japanese school in playing these little skits, I was the star of those skits. I thought this might be another opportunity like cheerleading, you know, open up avenue. But for some reason, I turned it down, and I said, "I will try to find you someone else that I think would fit the bill." I talked to George Imamura, outgoing, good person, and he decided to do it, and he was a hit. And so I would have missed out on changing my lifestyle and ambition, but that was one of the happiest moments too. Another was during the summer. I wanted to get a summer job to help, you know, defray the expense. We had to pay tuition, and I took a ride on a bus to Akron where I knew a defense industry were located, and I applied at several of these big companies, well-known, Firestone, not Firestone, maybe it was Goodyear or others, and I was turned down because I was Japanese. And I was sort of bewildered because here, you know, I thought I left that behind on the Pacific Coast. This was in the security area of I guess this was, you know, defense oriented industry. They said, "We can't hire you." Now I don't know whether other Niseis at other plants were hired. I finally got a job in a small foundry making molds. That was a new experience, and I met other Niseis too. And by then, Sundays, I even went to a church sponsored by Rockefeller money. It was a modern church. It looked like an oil can in a silhouette. And this was in Cleveland. But the racial discrimination I met there was sort of a shocker.