Densho Digital Archive - George Hara Interview (denshovh-hgeorge

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LD: One other point that I'd like you to clarify would be about your grandchildren since this is a record --

GH: How many grandchildren. Nine?

LD: I think you have, are there seven grandsons?

GH: Seven grandsons and two daughters. I missed two boys there, but you know, they're very respectful. That's maybe a carryover, I think, maybe from the Meiji period, my folks teaching or, you know, something, but they haven't gotten, what do you call, smart ass with me yet, and I enjoy them. They respect me in a way.

LD: I think we just forgot to mention the children, your children's names also. You told who they were and --

GH: You know, like name and dates sometimes are hard to recall, but starting with the oldest, okay. We have Peter, and then Peter has a brother named Evan. Those are the two children, Nancy my second daughter. Now my oldest daughter has two boys too, Adam and Raider, very fancy name. Now Leslie is their mother's name. She's the oldest of my daughters. Now they happened to marry brothers, the Shick brothers. Fred was married to Leslie and Nancy married Paul. They all went to Lincoln High School, and they met each other. The interesting thing is the Shick brothers, one is tall and one is short. Leslie is taller than Nancy, Nancy's short, and the kids followed the same thing. Adam is one or two heads taller than Peter who's even older, and the other one, Raider is tall too. In fact, Adam was 6' 2", I think, tall gangly kid, and I look up at him, and I wonder how, I don't even think my genes were part of that boy's makeup, you know. He is huge, but he plays soccer and likes to ski. They take up these expensive sports like skiing and snow boarding. Anyway... oh my daughter, I have two daughters both offsprings of my oldest son. They live down in California, small town called Belmont. They have a nice home there, and they come up during the holidays and Christmas. They all get together. Fortunately, they all get along very well. And their names are Natalie, she's the youngest, and the oldest girl Olivia, and the oldest boy is called... what the hell was his name, his name is George, Nicky George sounds like a Greek, but he's my oldest son's, you know, that's like asking me to count backwards from 9, subtract from 9 from 100. It is very difficult. Anyway, that's my, oh, who else? Who is that name? Louie, oh yeah. God, I forgot about the youngest two. My youngest daughter's sons, two boys, Louie and George, Georgie and Louie, yeah, in that order. And they're trying to, you know, follow in their older cousins' footsteps and follow them around. But --

LD: And they're the children of which daughter?

GH: Phyllis, my youngest. They're growing up in Bend, Oregon.

LD: And then do you have another son?

GH: Another what?

LD: Another son?

GH: Anymore kids, grandkids?

LD: You have another son?

GH: Who else is that? George, George and Louie. Oh, another son. He's sort of a neutered sex, never gotten married, and he's well-accepted by his brothers and sisters and all the grandkids and well-accepted part of the family. That was a blow to me when I first found out, but those things happen, I guess. And fortunately, I get stubborn at times. I never made a big issue out of it. That reminds me, one time in Ohio Wesleyan, I don't think she even knows this story. My association with the church group, I was called on by theological students. They would ask me to go to different parishes, and they were assigned certain small churches out in this country, and I would talk to them about camp about the Nisei. And for those people in the country, in Ohio, they didn't know anything about the Japanese or the evacuation, and so that was one thing, and then one thing led to another, and I was invited to a big conference, Christian-sponsored, on world peace in the town, Columbus, which is only about, you know, twenty, thirty miles away from Delaware, Ohio. And with these people from Delaware that went to Columbus to be a part of this peace conference, and we went to one of the host family's residential home. And the first night there, I was given a room with a black person, older black person, and I think, you know, the studies part of the program. Anyway, it was all related to peace and trying to bring changes about. And that night, I was sleeping in bed, we're sharing a double bed, and as I was awakened, and it startled me, and this guy was cuddling me. And really I was, you know, never encountered a situation like that where another male was, you know, getting, fondling me, and I was rigid, anyway -- my muscles that is. Anyway, I got, excused myself, got out of that bed in a big ass hurry and went to the bathroom, composed myself, and, you know, I wasn't quite sure what to do. But I got in bed again, but I made sure I was on the far end of the bed, turned my back towards him, and this person got the message and nothing further happened, somebody was looking after me. And the next morning, you know, I never mentioned this to my host or even talked about it to the, this guy, and sort of brushed it off. Because emotionally, I wasn't that shook up because it could have gotten worse. But anyway, I found out he was the chief speaker, a brilliant speaker at that meeting, and he was a brilliant singer. He sang solo, and I remembered his name. I won't mention it, but he was such an interesting character that I, you know, thought he would be in the news if not as a lecturer, maybe accused of molesting young boys or something, but I never saw his name. The other day, I was talking with the reverend at church and asked her if she heard of this person. "Oh," she says, "I heard of him, saw his name in the, some church news," so he's still active in there. But that was one horrible experience that I kept to myself. But fortunately, you know, it didn't leave any scars.

LD: Well, we appreciate it. There are so many stories that you shared with us that have been so descriptive. We appreciate all the time and all the thought that you have put into your life. I think they're wonderful lessons.

GH: One more thing I want to add. One of the activities as we grew older as Niseis, you know, playing softball, basketball, dance, skating party, I was invited to join, in my high school years, an older group of Niseis, Portland Midget Cardinals, and they're good athletes and good looking Nisei boys, and got to know some of them real well, and they let me tag along. And one of their activity was to make the rounds around the Sixth Avenue in Portland. I don't know if you're acquainted with Sixth Avenue at prewar time. That was the red light district of Portland. All the way from Burnside to Union Depot, and intermingled within those were some Japanese hotel, and even the hotels down South Portland where I grew up had signs, "no girls." I never knew what that meant, you know, "no girls," "no girls." Well actually that meant there is no, you know, prostitutes living here. But I found prostitution flourishing in town and they, one thing, if you had the money, they were very democratic, egalitarian, you might say. And that was, you know, beginning of my next phase in my sex education, you might say. So by the time I got to college, I wasn't, you know, what you call, an innocent virgin by a long shot. That's still off the record. [Laughs] I don't want them to say Jesus Christ, that guy was horning around when he was in high school. But I think if you go, if some of the Niseis did talk about it, going to different whorehouses was an enjoyable activity, not everybody did.

LD: As you think back about all of the things that you've experienced, is there a message that you'd like to leave for future generations?

GH: Well, I think education is very important, I think, regardless of generation, but I think you want to get into a field that you enjoy at what you're doing, and that's not always the easiest thing to find. But if you can find the happy combination where you're happy doing it, making enough money, I think you can qualify as being a good American, you know, and then being modern in your vices.

LD: Thank you very much.

GH: It's from an old pro. You know, Tim, as we went to these whorehouses, each one, they're on the second floor and you walk up a stairway, each one had one rung that was connected to a bell that rang upstairs, and you got to know which rung that was in each different place, and you can bypass and go up, surprise the madam or whoever was greeting, you know. But they liked the Nisei boys because they get the hakujin kids up there, and they start playing touch football, you know, and all that sort of thing. And we were more well-mannered than the, no trouble from us. But that was an outlet, and I don't think the Nisei ladies had, girls had to worry too much about getting pregnant and all that sort of thing.