<Begin Segment 7>

HH: All right. In your time from the time you were living in San Francisco to your time in the army and your time Philadelphia, how would you assess the quality of racial prejudice that you encountered? And I'm making an assumption that it changed over a period of time. Maybe it did not, but if it did not, just say so, but I'm assuming that it changed you. In what ways did it change over the course of time?

NH: Gosh. As far as racial prejudice or discrimination, I didn't really experience any of that at all. And I think this is primarily due to the fact that I started out in a Quaker school, and then after finishing the army service, I went to school and then the summer school were also, was working at a chemical laboratory, and that was a Quaker oriented company, it was Philadelphia Quartz Company, which was really run by the Elkington family of, which is a pretty well-known family in Philadelphia. And so I was treated quite equally with my peers.

HH: The army is not known for being all that humane. Did you find that there was some kind of crude forms of bigotry that were there?

NH: Not in the short period of time I was at basic training. That was a mixed group that was Caucasian, Blacks, was well as we had several Asians in that unit that was in basic training. But soon thereafter, I got separated again and got into a Japanese American grouping because of the Japanese language in Intelligence. So there was no real discrimination there.

HH: Do you identify with the label "quiet American"?

NH: Hmm. Yeah. I guess I consider myself as being one of the quiet ones, because I didn't become a real activist and shout at inequality or anything like that. Even though we were evacuated, then constitutional rights were denied, but I didn't go out on protests much.

HH: Didn't throw any bricks?

NH: I didn't throw any bricks or did anything like that. So you're right, I guess I am a "quiet American."

HH: As a "quiet American," one of the things we find ourselves doing is being inconspicuous, but from time to time, we're pressed into a position of being conspicuous, being very visible. How do you feel about those instances when you are thrust into a position of being very visible?

NH: I didn't feel, being singled out or made public example of anything like that. Everything seemed to be positive as far as I was concerned.

HH: Were you ever embarrassed?

NH: Because I was Japanese?

HH: Well, how about this? Were you ever embarrassed because your parents were not as, in quotation marks, "American" as other, your friends' parents?

NH: No.

HH: Have you ever experienced disliking yourself for being Asian?

NH: Now, that's one thing I could say I wasn't. Because there's nothing you could do about that.

HH: If Japanese happened to be your primary language, it was the first language that you spoke, first language that you were taught after you were born. If that's the case, what pains have you taken to maintain your facility in speaking and writing this language?

NH: You mean after I did my service? I didn't do much after that. I didn't pursue any continued education in Japanese language. The only thing I did was write letters to my in-laws, because they were not fluent in English. So I did write Japanese letters, and then they would write to me in Japanese and I would have to read it and kind of translate it to my wife, because she didn't have much Japanese training there.

HH: Do you sometimes forget, even for a brief moment, that you're not quite...

NH: You're not quite what?

HH: That you're not Caucasian? Many Japanese Americans lived in a Caucasian community, and they associated with Caucasians.

NH: Oh, no, I don't try to act like a Caucasian.

HH: Do you sometimes inadvertently -- not that you make an effort to do this -- find that all of a sudden you come to a realization that you're not...

NH: You're not a Caucasian but an Asian? I guess sometimes I do, yeah.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 1994 JACL Philadelphia. All Rights Reserved.