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Yosh Uchida - Part 3 of 5

Interviewer: Vickie Taketa, Mike Honda
 Interviewee: Yosh Uchida (1920 - 2024)

Transcript of Yosh Uchida

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Joy & Cultural Resistence Timeframe 0:00 >> 6:53

I liked my students to learn judo because I was a judo teacher. But, at the same time, I knew that the students had to have good grades and most of the time, still, then I realize the importance of having a good grades. Well, the reason I say this is because at one time I had a-- a group of students, about four or five [of them], and they were... scholastic person, right out of high school and all four of them graduated at the same time. And they came, applied for a job. They were there in a medical laboratory business. So I said, 'Now, all four of you have applied for the same job. Now, why do you think I should give it to any one of you?' And they said, 'No, just-- just see what you have.' 'So first, what kind of grade do you have?' 'I have all A's.' The second, 'Oh, I have, A and B.' Third, 'I have C's.' Fourth, 'I have C's.' So I said, 'Okay, we'll give you the job to the all A student,' and they thought, well, I was a little bit prejudiced, but I thought, 'I try this out.' Anyway, one of the things that was important was, what I asked, 'Well, what did you do in your spare time?' 'I didn't have spare time' 'Well, you got all A's, so you must've had some spare time.' Well, I study all the time.'' Do you have spare time you study?' 'Yes, I study.' Then I asked the others. The second one said she had studied was, well, not too much. She played more? The third, fourth, they played, and I found that the person I hired, they got all A's, found time to study, do extra work so that whatever job she was doing, she had it all completed excellently to present.

From that point on, I always look for students to see if they had all A grades. And later on in judo, it happened to be the same way. I would say, 'What's your grade point?' And your person would say, 'My grade point is four A's only.' I said, 'You're not a B student?' 'No, all A's.' Then I find out that they are all A's because they, they did very well, in judo as we were, in academics, and this was very important to me because as I pointed out to the teachers, this student, this student, and this student, are all A students. They said, 'Well, man, I know, they're my students, my tests too.' You mean they're all A students?' 'They're all A students.' 'Well, what do you think?' 'Well, I would never subject to anybody else because they are all A students, and they make use of their spare time.' And I found that after I hired that all A student, she always help all the people when they were behind something, she always helped out These are kind of things that you see in all A students. Whereas in all C students, they can hardly wait until they got through with all the work, and then they're gone. And did this difference that I found while I was coaching. And I thought it was very important part of instruction, and from there on I always made a session of all A students. And not only did I get a lot of accolades for it, but the students made me look good because-- this thing that I will point out, the all A's, the all A's. And the teachers all, whenever I wanted the favor for my students, I got them. And I find that these are kinds of things that I never realized until I started taking judo, that it came about. So anyway, I still use always... grade point.

Narrative & Identity Timeframe 6:53 >> 11:05

Judo, to most people, they see judo, they see a big guy, a strong guy-- small guy, maybe a small guy, he's good in judo, but, then big guy might be better, but not quite. But to me, it's very important because if you have time, your A students, to put extra effort into the, the... studies and the... the, then come above, above the regular students and this is important because if you're going establish yourself as a good student, you have to show somebody else besides A's, but if you have A's, and you have spare time, use your spare time to help yourself with extra work that you accomplish, and the people can recognize that that is very important for that person. And this is something that not too many people know, but I use-- I still use grade point. I come, I say, 'What's your grade point Johnny?' And he says, 'Uhhh, my grade point's 3.2 or something like that.' '3.2??? What do you mean, a 3.2??? That's a C.' 'Well the classes are hard.' 'You mean the classes? Look at the class that-- that Tom's taking with you. He is all A's.' 'Well, he studies all the time' 'Well, why can't you study?' 'Well, I want to play.' 'A ha! there's your point. You play too much. Consequently, you you're making C's whereas so and so is making all A's. And I think that the difference. Don't you?' And he says, 'Yeah, that is the difference.' and this I think is very important in life as you go on. You have to have a something and you might not have accomplished. Maybe judo is not as good and that's okay. But if you're to do A work, you... you're looked at by your fellow students as a great upstanding student and you point out, there’s Tom, he is an all A's student, and look at him now. He's graduating the valedictorian of the class, and he got a scholarship, and you know. These are the kinds of things that we as a niseis sometimes don't see. We see Caucasians get A's, they, they get A's because they're Caucasian. That's not true. You can make all A's and get there, but you have to make up your mind that you're going to be someone up there, not your friend, the Caucasian person.

Joy & Cultural Resistence Timeframe 11:05 >> 16:40

One of the things that I tell students and the first thing I tell them is, well, my name. And then I take the role. And I say, 'How many of you want to be an Olympian?' Well, almost everybody wants to be an Olympian. To be an Olympian, there's just not... just sitting there and think, 'I want to be an Olympian.' It takes extra work. And many of my Olympian... look at my Mike Swain over here. Let's look at, uh, Marti Malloy. She was a Olympian, uh, first woman. The, the, the look at, uh...um… another Olympian was, uh, un-- very fortunate. Could not make-- made the Olympic team, but they called it off and consequently did not attend the Olympics or anything, I feel real bad because the boy was good. He studied hard, and you know, not only made good grades but he was the kind typical kind of students, I would like to say, 'Oh, he is one of our Olympians.' And then we had a student named Keith Nakasone, who was a freshman and made the team. Everything was set, then Russia and the United States got into an argument about some political thing, and the whole all the Olympics were canceled by the United States and nobody went. And I really felt sorry for Nakasone because he was one of the first... that set the record. And he would be, he would be an Olympian and too many people, you know Olympian and Olympian, but it's an honor that not too many Olympians can get. And during my career as coach of San Jose State, I had the great fortune of training on Olympians and they were like Keith Nakasone, uh, Mike Swain, uh, Kevin Asano, from Hawaii, Marti Molloy. I don't know if I said that more. She was a woman that had made the Olympic team. And it's-- it's a real honor when they have, the few more people that have made it and are classified, along with the rest of the people.

(Interviewer) So when you ask the students, 'Which one of you would like to be an Olympian?' what did you continue to tell them?

Well, I tell them that, education, 'You're here for education, and you're not here for judo.' If you were to practice judo, you know, you can do it at San Jose State or other place, and at San Jose State, I will spend time with you, and you will learn judo, you might not become the Olympian, but you will be right on top. And I would like to see you do that. But it's hard work because... you attend the many tournaments, and you'll be beaten at many tournaments, and you're not going to win all of them because there are other students from other parts of the country that also want to be an Olympian. And they have also studied hard, but sometimes you study harder. And you'll be making that team and there's nothing that I like more than you to become an Olympian.'

Transformation & Change Timeframe 16:40 >> 27:47

And... I don't-- you know that how this became a weight system. This weight system was started at San Jose State, and most people don't know too much that the judo and the weight system and the Olympics were started by myself, arguing with many, many people why it should be the Olympic way. And…the Japanese would say, 'You don't need to have weight. You could just match guys together.' I said, 'No, you can't. You people are thinking of a sumo, in sumo, the champion is just the biggest and the strongest person, and he usually becomes champion in sumo. In judo, it's the same thing, taking somebody that learns technique real well in practice, then wins everything. He is usually big and strong. How about Joe here? He only weighs 130 pounds. He's never going to be a champion. But I think we should him a chance to compete.' And then we should have this weight-- and this weight system was I talked it over with Henry Stone from the University of California, and Henry had spent time in Hawaii and he had learned judo there. And I said, 'What do you think of that weight system, Henry?' He said, 'Yosh-- you know, you got something there. I think that's a good thing. I think we're about we're going to have a hard time trying to get people to believe in us. We... let's-- let's see what we can.' It took us two or three years and they were the most of the opposition came from Japan and then from our presence, with all the people in the United States, they thought that you should not have weight. But there is how how can your small guy who only weighs 150 pounds, how is he ever going to become a champion?' And they said, 'Well, he’s gotta be good.' He'll never get good because you have another big guy there, and you throw him all over the place and you'll never make it. And he says, 'You know Yosh, I think you got something there... I think I'll help you on this. I think I'll support the weight system.' And sure enough, we, we, we started, it started the weight system, and there was a lot of steps to do after he was through.

And the first thing I had to do was to talk with the AAU, the Amateur Athletic Union of the United States. They control all of sports. And under the AAU, if something is recognized as a sport, it become... they sanction it as a sport, and after that it become gradually becomes a sport. So then I explained to him why we would like to make judo into an AAU sport. And of course, I had lots of opposition on this because most of came from the nikkeis, and I had to battle the nikkeis on this: 'This is the only way you can make judo a popular sport.' And little by little, as time went on, I was able to... show everybody that the weight system did it. While we were working on the weight system, other countries start to work and that too. France, England, and then all these other country started to say, 'You know, that's a bad idea to give more students more opportunities.' And finally, it became an Olympic sport, and in Olympic sport it became 130 lbs, 150 lbs, 180 lbs, and heavyweight. So somebody who's huge, weighed over over 200, 300, they can still compete as a heavyweight, but sometimes in the weight before that, the Japanese sumo person would never take on... judo because there was too much work to get down. But as time goes on now, we find that many Japanese heavyweights have become judo persons, and they become judo champions.

And one of the persons that I always admire is a person whose nameAnton Geesink. He was from Harlem, he was, he was almost, almost seven feet tall, and weighed close to 300 pounds. Huge guy, monster of a guy. And I said, 'See? If you ever came, met a guy like that, you would have to say weight system is good, but now you don't have to say it, because now you can look at him and say, 'Yeah, he is a champion.'' And so this is how judo in the United States and... and in the worldwide has become an Olympic sport is... was because of the weight system that we managed to put in at San Jose State and push very hard so that people would understand that this was the Olympic judo.

Of course if I known if I'd known that it would become an Olympic sport, I probably would not have pushed it, because it was very, very difficult, with all the countries involved, and when they hold the meetings, all the countries are there, but most of the countries, they thought it over and they said, 'You know, that's not a bad idea.' And because up to then, Japan dominated judo and then they would say, you know, 'It was not necessary.' But when-- when I pointed out that, look at Sumo in Japan and judo, look at the difference in weight, look how big the sumo people are, and the big guys would go into... take a judo guy, or become a big sumo... and the most absurd was they wanted to learn judo but they wouldn't spend time getting fat or big like that. So it was not too difficult once-- once we got this thing rolling, especially in the United States, they always like the weight system because they feel there... there is a fairness of one person not being too big or one person not being same size. What do you say? Why both 150 pounds? There's no, no question that they they were ready to accept that.

Transformation & Change Timeframe 27:47 >> 33:59

(Interviewer) Do you remember what year the Olympics sanctioned judo as a sport?

Well, it's not as simple as most people say. We just say, oh, here you are, we won. We approach Amateur Athletic Union, the Amateur Athletic Union governed all sports. So if you were a swimmer or you were a decathlon champion, and you wanted to do anything, you had to be you had to qualify that you were an amateur and that you have never received money. And there was at the Amateur Athletic Union. And then we qualified. They said, 'Well, Mr. Uchida,' And of course they didn't they were-- they didn't think judo would become a sport. 'So, Mr. Uchida, next five years, we want you to get all of the records. Yeah. For five years, all your junior tournaments, all the things that you had done. Yeah. Who or who you officials are and so on.' And I had to make, gather all this and Henry Stone was a member of the AAU because he was a wrestling coach at the University of California and I gave it to him and he said, 'Yosh, thank you, I will present this.' And he had very, very much influence over the AAU because he was not only a coach at University of California [Berkeley], but he was on the committee, he was in the Olympic Committee, you know, and very much influential in what he said. So he presented that and they accepted that. They saw that what I said, that it was authentic. And we had the, in 1953, we had judo going as, as an amateur sport. And the winner of the national AAU Judo Championship was a Caucasian [Lyle Hunt], a friend from San Jose State. And he won first place. And he and I went to France to watch the Olympics-- not, not, not the Olympics yet, but he had an amateur championship. And from then on, it kinda caught on, and everybody thought that this would be a good, good thing to practice. And little by little, Caucasians start to practice judo.

Henry Stone was a member of the staff of the University of California [Berkeley], and he was the physical education director. And it really helped because University of California [Berkeley] carries a big name and also sports. And when Henry Stone said, 'Well, I've talked this over with Yosh, and we agreed it is this this would be a good way to introduce.'

(Interviewer) And which, which University of California at that time?

The,... the game was held at San Jose State University in 1953, and they're still-- from San Jose State-- was... at that time a Junior won Championship. And of course, that surprised many, many people. Oh, especially the niseis because the niseis... the niseis thought that that it would be very difficult for a Caucasian person to learn judo. And his name was Lyle Hunt. And he he won the championship and it he would brag about it, almost immediately, that a Japanese sport was about to become... an also, an Olympic sport.

Transformation & Change Timeframe 33:59 >> 39:12

Well, like most people think, I just step in and say, 'Well, we're going to have a sport here.' Well, it's not that easy. For one, judo is not... not a famous name in in the in the sports world. And to get people to understand sport, it was very difficult. It was not a Japanese place, I felt it would take a Caucasian that would introduce this sport. And that man, I felt, had to be somebody that's very well known in the sport circle, and came from a highly regarded university. And this was the University of California at Berkeley, and Henry Stone was from Berkeley, and he was the head of the wrestling at Berkeley, and he also head of the AAU in wrestling. So with all of that credentials. There was... the Henry and I, I explained to Henry how important it would be, also from a public relations standpoint, that the Japanese also now have a sport in the sports circle.

And we also had another person that was very important. His name was Brundage. He was with the Olympic sports, and he was chairman. And Henry Stone was very good friends with Mr. Brundage. And Mr. Brundage had a home in Santa Barbara that had... had a house with Japanese paintings. So he was quite often out this way, and while in San Jose, he was out, he stopped, then visited Mr. Stone, and Mr. Stone told him about working for the AAU, and AAU pushing judo. And Mr. Brundage said, 'Well, I didn't know too much about judo, but tell me about it.' And so Mr. Stone told him about judo, and he said, 'Why, it's got everybody else in there, why not Japanese?' And so, that’s sort of how we got started with, with, uh, five years of work that I put in showing all the tournaments, you know, the competitions we've had or, and there was no... the wrestling team. They, they would look at it, they said they felt there was nothing wrong with getting judo into the Amateur Athletic Union. And then into the Olympics. And these are the steps that were taken. And of course, more and more there were more nikkeis that thought that it should not have been taken in that easily or something like that. But, you know, you work five years, that's a long time to get ready to present, and say, 'This is why we like to see judo in AAU, all among the Olympic sports.' And this is how we got accepted, and this is now... how it will be provided and we will be moved forward as time goes on.

Joy & Cultural Resistence Timeframe 39:12 >> end

(Interviewer) And Yosh, who was your first Olympic champion, of your students?

Well, there was a fella named Bobby Berland, and he was, he is not my champion, but he was hurt about a week before, uh, a week before the Olympic trials. He hurt his knee, very badly. And, and we, we didn't think he'd be able to compete. So I, I talked with his doctor. They said, 'Well, we'll probably have to do surgery. And then after surgery, we'll see.' He did, did his surgery and found that the knee was bad, badly torn, and he sewed it up as best he could. And he said, 'Well, you have to take care of him.' And I said, 'Oh, how do I do that?' 'Well, the only way you can take care of him is to keep him, uh, somewhere he doesn't do any exercise, except possibly swim.' He said, 'Well, Yosh, you have a swimming pool. Can you stay in the swimming pool?' I said, 'I guess, you know.' So I was appointed to assistant director of Olympic Judo, and I had to be in Los Angeles. So at home my wife... he said she filled the pool up and started the pool, pool going. And Bobby Berland from Chicago came and he-- he swam in that pool every day and every night. And he with-- a week later Freddie issued and said he was ready to compete and... of course, all during that time that he was gone, nobody know what everybody would know where he went, everybody wanted to know what happened to him, but when he was at my home, and we kept him hidden. And this is for, a week before the tournament, we brought him out and teach him exercise and that was about it, and he came in second during the Olympics and everybody was very, very happy. Here was an Olympian from San Jose State, came in second, and I was well pick and charge of the place …and I was not in charge, but I was second in command. So many, many people were very happy to see that the way we carried the Olympics.