<Begin Segment 1>

HH: What is your full name?

AO: My full name is Alan Hisayoshi Okamoto.

HH: Okay. And what is the name of your wife?

AO: My wife's name is Yoneko Watanabe Okamoto.

HH: And how many siblings do you have?

AO: My siblings? I have four. No, wait a minute, three siblings. That's my brothers. [Laughs]

HH: And what are the genders and ages of each of them?

AO: The ages and gender of each I'm not very sure of. My younger, next youngest brother is William Kiyoshi Okamoto, who is five years younger than I am, who would now be sixty-nine. The next one is Raymond F. Okamoto, and he is fourteen years younger than me, so that would place him about sixty. And the youngest is Robert Okamoto, and he is fifteen years younger, so that would make him fifty-nine, I guess.

HH: Right. All boys.

AO: All boys.

HH: And how many children do you have?

AO: I have four children, two girls and one boy.

HH: And what kind of education did they receive?

AO: Every one of them received a college education, getting either a BA or BS degree. Two of them went through medical school and had their MDs.

HH: So I was going to ask you what their occupations are. So two of them are medical...

AO: One is a surgeon, one is a psychiatrist, the youngest is a girl who is a schoolteacher in a private school in California, and the other one is a boy who has been with the Campus Crusade for Christ for ten years, just received his Master of Divinity this year.

HH: So does mean that he will one day be a minister, or he is a minister now?

AO: That means that he actually is, got his degree so that he could go to Japan as a missionary. And going to a foreign country, it is better to have a ministerial degree than to have no degree at all.

HH: Do you have any grandchildren?

AO: I have three grandchildren by the one who is a ministerial student, two girls and one boy. And the MD psychiatrist has a adopted blue-eyed blonde with the name Okamoto. [Laughs]

<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 1994 JACL Philadelphia. All Rights Reserved.

<Begin Segment 2>

HH: When were you born and what is your present age?

AO: I was born in South Philadelphia at Women's Hospital in 1920. So my present age is seventy-four.

HH: Your parents' names?

AO: My parents, my father was Richard Tokizo Okamoto, who was born in Odawara, Japan. My mother is Toshiko Aoki Okamoto, who was born in Tokyo.

HH: You grew up in Philadelphia or in suburban Philadelphia?

AO: I grew up for the first five years in Philadelphia in an area which is now part of the University of Philadelphia campus for my first five years. At the age of five and a half or so, we moved up to the suburbs of Philadelphia in Abington Township, which is north of Philadelphia, about eighteen miles north of Philadelphia.

HH: How would you describe that community in Abington?

AO: How do I describe that? In what way?

HH: The makeup of the community, the kind of people who live there, white collar...

AO: Well, I think that it is typical of these suburbs in 1925, it was made up of blue collar and white collar people. It was close to a area called Willow Grove Park, and many of the people worked at the Willow Grove Park or supplying materials for Willow Grove Park.

HH: What kind of schools did you attend?

AO: I went to school in the old public school system of the suburbs. So I started in kindergarten and went all the way through and graduated from Abington High School in Abington, Pennsylvania.

HH: How would you describe the economic condition of your family while you were growing up?

AO: Economic conditions? We were, I would say, comfortable. We were not rich, but we were not poor either. Dad worked and had a business in Philadelphia as a silk importer. And for quite a while, he used to travel to New York City every Monday, stayed up in New York City until Friday night and came home on Friday nights and spent the weekends with us in our Willow Grove home, our Abington home.

HH: Do you know how your family decided to settle in Philadelphia?

AO: My family decided to settle in Philadelphia by a very odd quirk. My uncle, and I don't know the reason why, my uncle, my father's brother, came to Philadelphia and started a business. And he had a, I guess you'd call it a curio shop in Philadelphia. And first had it in about Third and Walnut Street, and then up in Columbia Avenue. He called my father over to help him out in his business, so my dad came over about 1918. My mother did not... my mother and dad were already married, but my mother did not come over until late 1919, early 1919. So they came directly to Philadelphia, Mother and Dad.

HH: Your dad came over, if I understood you correctly, around 1918?

AO: Prior, just prior to 1918.

HH: '19 or '20?

AO: Beg your pardon?

HH: And your mother came over around 1920?

AO: 1918 because -- 1919 because I was born in 1920. [Laughs]

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 1994 JACL Philadelphia. All Rights Reserved.

<Begin Segment 3>

HH: All right. Growing up as you did here, there were very few Japanese Americans in Philadelphia.

AO: There were very, very few Japanese Americans and very few Japanese. I think at that time, in the Philadelphia area, the greater Philadelphia area, there must have been about sixty Japanese and Japanese Americans all together. And I can remember many of the family names, and they were scattered throughout the Philadelphia area. South Philadelphia, Philadelphia itself, Ridley Park, Germantown, and of course we were in Abington. It was called Willow Grove at that time because Abington was using the Willow Grove post office in our area.

HH: Did you feel that you knew all the Japanese who lived here?

AO: I felt that we knew all of the Japanese that were here.

HH: How much racial prejudice did you encounter during the times you were growing up here?

AO: It depends on where we're talking. In our immediate community, since we were the only Japanese around, everybody knew our name, practically, and everybody knew of our family, and we did not get too much harassment. However, if you went outside of the general area, the Abington Township area or the area that we lived, you could get some harassment just like any other ethnic group would.

HH: So you went to the public schools in the Willow Grove/Abington area?

AO: Yes.

HH: And after you finished those schools, what did you do?

AO: I went to, I enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania in a town school. I went there for two years, and then I was out of school for about a year to get some more money and so forth. And then I transferred to Lehigh. I graduated from Lehigh University in a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 1994 JACL Philadelphia. All Rights Reserved.

<Begin Segment 4>

HH: And after you graduated from Lehigh as a chemical engineer, what did you do?

AO: Well, we have to go back a little. In my senior year, of course, Pearl Harbor occurred December 1941. And as a consequence, when I graduated, no one would want to have a Japanese American working in their area. However, a friend of mine who was a chem, chemist, got me a job in a German electroplating plant up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. And I worked there at a very low salary and stayed there working as a chemist for the plant. However, I heard about the Japanese American unit being formed as a fighting unit during 1942, '43. And I thought that it was my duty as a son to help my brothers and help my parents out to be recognized as someone who had a person in the army. So I volunteered for the Japanese American unit. And when I volunteered for the Japanese American unit, we... at that time, we were classified in the draft board as 1-A or 4-F, 1-A being able for military duty, 4-F for a medical disability. And all of us Japanese Americans were classified as 4-C whether we had a citizenship or not, and 4-C is the classification which made you an "enemy alien." So when they decided to form this 442nd unit, we had to volunteer for that unit. And when I volunteered for that unit, I had a three-month FBI investigation of my character, starting from everyone that knew me from when I moved into the Willow Grove area, Abington area, through the high school through all the schools, through the college, and everybody that I knew, and I was classified and reclassified as being 1-A, so that I could join the unit. When I went into the unit after I passed the physical, they said, "You know that you're only able to join the Japanese American fighting unit." I said, "Yes, that is why I volunteered."

HH: And what was your experience in the unit?

AO: I went all the way through. I was among the last three hundred volunteers to train with the 442nd Regimental Combat Team in Camp Shelby, Mississippi. I went overseas with them, I went through four campaigns, I got three Purple Hearts, one Bronze Star, and four campaign stars. I came out of it in the November of 1945, and came home before the actual unit all came home. In fact, when the unit actually came home, these were practically all replacements, so most of us who were original members, came home before that.

HH: This was a very special unit.

AO: It certainly was. It was made up of all Japanese Americans. The original group was made up of all Japanese Americans who volunteered for that unit. I would say approximately half were from Hawaii and half were from the camps. Now, very little has been said about those in the East Coast who volunteered, and there were quite a number of us, and I have yet to see anything written down saying this many people, or so and so has volunteered from the East Coast for that unit. When we joined the unit down there, many of the officers were white, most of the officers were white. There were a few that were Japanese Americans. And, of course, by attrition and being wounded and so forth and so on, the numbers soon became so that we were getting almost half and half, white and Japanese Americans.

HH: This was a unique experience for you being with so many Japanese Americans probably for the first time in your life?

AO: It was like taking any white person and putting him into a community of all Japanese. Because I had never seen so many Japanese in all my life as when I stepped off the train and went into Camp Shelby, Mississippi.

HH: And how would you describe your comfort level or lack of it when you joined this group?

AO: I had a very unusual experience. Because, number one, I was East Coast, and there weren't that many East Coast people in the unit. Many, I would say, of the unit that I was with, the company that I was with, half were from Hawaii and half were from the West Coast. And I must say that the people from Hawaii were very pleasant to me, and I find that the people from the West Coast were very, very cliquish, and didn't have much to do with the Hawaiian boys or the East Coast boys. So I made friends first very fast with the Hawaiian boys, and then with the West Coast boys. However, during the war and after the war, I have very many friends who are from the West Coast and very good friends from the California/Washington/Oregon area.

HH: How would you say that this experience in the service changed your life?

AO: It had changed my life very drastically. Because when I came home, I met my wife here who had been relocated into Philadelphia. And up until that time, up until the time I went into the army, I didn't have much to do with the Japanese or Japanese Americans. So as a consequence, meeting my wife and wanting to go out with her and so forth, I had to associate with the all-Japanese, Japanese American crowd, which was the JACL, the Japanese American Citizens League. And I forget that I think there was a, another group called the Nisei Steering Committee at that time in Philadelphia. And I had to become acquainted with those people because they were the people that she associated with. So to be able to go out with my wife and to get to know her better, I had to associate with that group rather than the Caucasian group that I was used to going with.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 1994 JACL Philadelphia. All Rights Reserved.

<Begin Segment 5>

HH: How would you compare or contrast your social relationships with the Japanese American group compared with that of the Caucasian groups?

AO: Okay. That's a very funny situation because unlike most people, I think I have a very, very dual personality. When I'm with the Japanese or Japanese American group, I act more Caucasian. I'm very more outgoing than they are, I'm outspoken and so forth However, when I'm with a hakujin group, Caucasian group, I am more Japanese. I am more reserved and I do not, I'm not boisterous in other words, not outspoken, and I wait until I'm spoken to usually.

HH: Which brings me to other, some miscellaneous questions that I have. Do you see yourself generally as one of the "Quiet Americans"?

AO: Depends on where I am.

HH: Depends on the group you're with.

AO: That's correct.

HH: [Laughs] All right. And I guess you more or less responded to this one already. At times you're going to find yourself conspicuous, whether you want to be or not, and I just want to ask you, how do you feel about your comfort level when you are thrust with this kind of conspicuousness or visibility?

AO: When I am with a Caucasian group, and they ask me about the Japanese, Japanese American aspects, I am not bashful at all. I am very comfortable talking about the Japanese Americans, their background, what they stand for and what they want. So in that particular case, I have no reservations at all. Now, when I'm with a Japanese group, I think more like a Caucasian than I do with Japanese Americans. And being not very conservative, I usually speak my mind.

HH: Have you ever been embarrassed by your parents because they were not as fluent in English as some of your, the parents of some of your friends?

AO: I was never embarrassed by my parents because of their lack of English. My mother and my dad... my dad was very well-spoken. My mother spoke very well, although at times, you could tell that she was, had no formal training. But I was never embarrassed by them at all.

HH: Did you ever experience disliking yourself for being a Japanese American?

AO: Never. I've never experienced disliking myself because I was a Japanese American.

HH: You've heard the expression the "model minority." And as one that embraces Asians, how do you, as a Japanese American, react to that label, "model minority"?

AO: Well, I guess I'm... again, I'm reverting back to my feelings about being, had a Caucasian feeling and a Japanese feeling. Lot of the things that bug the Japanese Americans do not bug me. And I have no feeling at all on something like this, because I guess I don't feel myself part of that group. [Laughs] Now, for instance, a lot of people do not like the word "Jap." That doesn't bother me at all. Whereas I know it's a big concern with a lot of Japanese Americans and Japanese American Citizens League, and I have no feeling that that should be a major problem. So that's one example of how I would feel in this particular case.

HH: To what extent do you identify with the plight of Latinos, Native Americans, African Americans?

AO: I do not relate myself to them at all, because I've always felt that the Japanese, Japanese Americans, had been brought up in a different background, like education is the thing. You must be good, you must not be against the law, you must obey your parents and people in authority. That's probably changing now more and more, even in a Japanese American group, but this is the way I was brought up. And I've always had that in the back of my mind.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 1994 JACL Philadelphia. All Rights Reserved.

<Begin Segment 6>

HH: The next question I had, what are some of the personal values that you retain that you can trace to your Asian background?

AO: I just said them all, really. The values of education, the values of people in authority, the values that you should be on your good behavior and not bring shame on your family or your friends or your race.

HH: I was going to ask you about shame, but you already mentioned that, so I'll skip that question.

AO: To what extent to you feel that your home, your family, influenced the practice of your, maybe non-practice of religion?

HH: My dad was not very religious. My mother, however, was very astute, and she felt that being the only Japanese, Japanese family in the area, she should be like other mothers. So she would make us go to church, Sunday school, and do all the things. She belonged to the PTA and baked cookies and cooked dinners for the PTA. And in my association with going to church, she made me to go to Sunday school and to the church. And as a consequence, I belonged to the boy's choir, I used to sing solos for the boys choir. I became an usher, an acolyte, and a server. We used to be very friendly with the minister, and at one time, when I was about, oh, I would say fifteen to seventeen years old, I was thinking of going into the ministry. And I was thinking about that and I went to college, got my BS degree, and even at that time, I was thinking about going into the ministry, and someone had tentatively set up a scholarship to go to a seminary, and of course, World War II broke out, and as a consequence, that was out. Having been overseas and so forth and so on, so the horrors of war, I had a lot of doubts when I came back, so I never pursued it. But I think that that would be one of my backgrounds, however, my wife came from a very Christian family, the girl that I eventually married came from a Christian family. Her mother was a very devout Christian, and as a consequence, she was very religious in that sense. So that we continued to follow that. She was a Baptist and I was an Episcopalian, and neither one of us liked the other's church, so we became a Presbyterian. And being a Presbyterian and with her, we joined the young couple's organization. I became a deacon, I became an elder, and we continued with our church work, going to Bible study classes and so forth. So I think the initial push of my mother saying, "You shall go to Sunday school and go to church," held throughout my life.

HH: Alan, I finished all my questions, but can you think of any experiences you had that holds particular significance for you?

AO: Religiously or what?

HH: Any kind. Whether it's in the service, in college, work?

AO: Well, I think the most striking thing as far as I'm concerned is having met my wife. I don't think I would have met her if it hadn't been for the war and so forth and so on. And we had a good life together, we have some very good children, and I think that that is the real crux of the kind of life that I enjoyed, and I think that was a turning point in my life, really.

HH: Thank you very much, Alan.

AO: You're welcome.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 1994 JACL Philadelphia. All Rights Reserved.