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Yosh Uchida - Part 4 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 >> 11:40

Well, the soldiers were very difficult to teach. Because for one, they had learned most things in the military and some were good, and some were bad, most of ‘em bad. So like, we would talk about judo throw, but that’s easy. We can throw is easy. The thing is hard is you have to have a person that knows how to take the fall so they don't get hurt. And that’s the part that is very difficult. And I used to talk with the doctor who opposed judo as a sport. And they had a good point because he said there were so many people coming out of the military that were... that were hurt from practicing judo, in the military or right after the military. One of the things people forget is, you have to learn how to be thrown and how to take that fall because otherwise, you stick your hand on your arm out there and the guy would make the throw that way, and of course you would have a broken ar, and these kind of things that doctors hated to see, and they say, 'I wouldn't teach judo to anybody. I just see so many injuries from judo.' But as I... got hold of a group of students at college, I would say, ‘Now, the reason you people got hurt was...' And I'd show how they were getting hurt. Instead of putting the arm down, they would fall, take the fall and hit the mat at the same time. I said, 'That's the proper way to fall.

That's one way. And there were about six other ways you could fall, and you're not gonna get hurt.' And then there was the whole... And here, I would see people who had never had judo before. I said, 'Now, when I turn them over, see how easily he turns. That’s what you have to do without worrying about it and putting your arm stiffly like this because then you get the wrist hurt, arm hurt, or shoulder hurt.’ And the thing that I showed, the first thing was, how to take the fall. And once they easily, turned them over easily, and there was no problem because they took the fall the way you wanted them. And that-- that's one thing that I did. And of course-- oh, these guys would come and say, 'Well, I was in the marines. I was in the marines, and I killed these Japs.' I said, 'Oh, yeah, yeah.' They’d say, ‘I tied them to the post. And I did take a bayonet and I’d poke them, and I’d rip them apart.’ Oh, well that wasn’t too nice. See, I can do the same, let me show you. They’d pick me up like that, and they were big and, and I was weighed about 130 lbs. Picked me up just like that. And I’d say, “Now what do I do?” And then they start swinging me around. And the one thing that scared me about me swung around when we had all these volleyball equipment, boxing equipment… When, uh. And all the equipment were made out of steel and they were all against the wall. Yeah. You would miss a beat, let the left hand go, and I would go sailing. You hit one of these shoes on the wall, and that was the most scary thing. And these guys [inaudible] before, the judo coach knocked out or injured by... by demonstration.

And then they would said, well why I should, you know, you know, I should take judo, when can knock the coach out. But I always thought that that's what the [inaudible]. Where I started from, there were, before long I was horizontal, what these guys were, as they swung me around, they got tired of this guy, I hung on for dear life, and I came back and said, ‘Are you going to take these?' And then I knew would there would be... I would be tough on them, and I would throw them, at the same time they were, and they were, they were hung onto my judogi. As I hung onto them, I would drop right on top of them hit them so, just so apart you and then not-- you knocked them out practically, and they were laying there on the mat, huffing and huffing... for breath and then the clas, the whole class would see that. And I just turned around and said, 'This is judo!' And that's how they learned that I wasn't kidding. And I think one time, a professor, who was watching, he was wondering how I handled this class. Cuz I was a small runt, five feet two, I didn't weigh much more than 130 pounds, about 125-130. And just swung me around like that; it was easy. I think I was easy for almost any police student because they were they were they thought they were tough anyway. And, uh, and I... had that determination in my mind that I was not going to get beat by any of these Caucasians. When I was going to take the judo my, my, mother used to say, 'You are taking judo. You are doing judo good the correct way, so that when you throw them, you definitely th-threw them.' And they knew that they had been thrown by a Japanese and uh, I think most of them were already knew that, 'No, and don't fool around with that guy, or he'll beat the hell out of you,' and so I had control of my class.

Well, we never had any conflict in the class because they knew they were... we had to learn to get together and learn. And they knew that, the students knew, that to understand it correctly, this-- this guy was no laughing matter. He wasn't going to accept anything or such or what-- without trying to show him something because, when, when I grabbed hold of ‘em, I knew I had to be, be ready to make the throw, otherwise they throw me. So and the next thing would be, 'Oh, look, Joe threw him. You mean, Joe threw the coach?' 'Yeah.' That wasn't gonna be something that everyone was gonna see-- no one was going to throw me and I, that, I was good but they didn't know anything.

Narrative & Identity Timeframe 11:40 >> 13:52

When I was teaching judo, the basic fundamentals, the basic fundamentals, if you learn correctly, is the background of all of judo. I mean, there's no fancy judo, unless you met with somebody from Japan who had been practicing with the university because the university students from Japan were very strong and very good and... when they-- when they got ahold of you and, they knew all the tricks, and they would have you unbalanced, and they would throw you, and I learned that by having a lot of Japanese students around, the students got better, quicker than what I could teach them because I had been teaching basic, but they had a fast technique that the Japanese students had against each other in tournaments. So with the students from Japan, it was always an advantage, so I always made sure I had many of them around so that they worked against these, big and tall Caucasians.

Narrative & Identity Timeframe 13:52 >> 16:33

Well I can't-- I can't say it as individual, any one person. But there are many people that, uh, I knew I could do better. There were there there were niseis, there were doing things that I didn't think they were too smart. They were... and I think main thing taught to me by my family was, ‘You as a Japanese, should be proud of being Japanese. You should not be out there, talked down by every little thing that day…’ By talked down, I mean by bowing down to something. You have your own life. You are Japanese. And as a Japanese, you should be, stand up there, and take these things and and answer back, instead of bowing down to everything. But I think that was the smartest way, I think you had to be able to join together... And be friendly among each other in order to move forward. I didn't think that by just being Japanese, but as a Japanese you have to do everything correctly. You know, I say, 'Hey... you Irishman, get out of my way,' and you say, 'Hey, can you move a little bit so I can get there?' And I found that they would do that, and I try not to get in, get in a fight with any Caucasian people that might be blocking traffic for something, and...

Timeframe 16:33 >> 23:46

(Interviewer) Yosh, you... you often talk about your brother Sam and your brother George. Did they influence you in any way in your life?

Oh, I don't think so. I often think about them, but Sam was my oldest brother. He was a kibei; he, when, right after he was born, my mother went back to Japan because of the... for influence of the 1998 [sic - 1918] flu that over, overcame most of the country. So she took myself, my sister and my brother, my oldest brother, to Japan, and we somehow made it in Japan. And I can’t say that they had much influence.. But one thing that, I think, that I regret is that my brother grew up in Japan instead of the United States, and I think he had in United State, he would’ve been quite a bit of a leader, but because he came from Japan, he could only spoke Japanese, and...when we went to school, he and my sisters, they started in the same class, and they got along. But I think they were better-- or better and, if there had been in an American school. Oh, my sister knew some. She went to grammar school in Japan. I think she could read and write in Japanese. It's amazing. Must've studied hard. She was not in high school but in grammar school when she learned all that. So when she came back to United States, she would read, read to my father. And that was a good part. She-- her Japanese were very good and she had learned Japanese words real well. Every night she would read to my dad and he was real happy. And that I so, is a good part of that whole thing, otherwise, she was a year below me, fitting us, and she did pretty well because she was a very conscientious person.

(Interviewer) Yosh, was the flu, was the flu the Spanish flu of 1918. You said that there was a flu epidemic. Was it 1918?

I think so in 1918. But that's, that's the one that my mother took my, my oldest brother, myself and my sister to Japan.

But she-- she, we had no argument about the grades or anything. And we tried to help ourselves out. We knew that if I didn't help her, she wouldn't get any English... and as far as Japanese school go, I was going to Japanese school. She would help me with Japanese school, so that was a big help.

Well, my father... His name was Shikao. Not Shikao, but Shikazo Uchida. We went back to the homeland where they all...the family, more or less lived together. And there was not separate living here. They were... the whole family lived in the big, in a large home, and my, my father said, 'Well, we're home.' It was rough out there in America, but we got back and that's the way the life went. My father, my father came back because he found that in Japan he was not the oldest; he was way at the bottom. And I guess he got tired of being pushed around.

(Interviewer) Weren't those the days that when you’re the oldest you–

The oldest got everything. If you had money to help build up the farm again, he put money in and then the farm grew larger. And then found out they didn't have any more, more money to put in, and-- and he goes back to the United States.

Transformation & Change Timeframe 23:46 >> 34:56

(Interviewer) Yosh. I'm going to ask you to tell the story of how you met I.K. Ishimatsu and what evolved from meeting him?

Well, it was, Wayne Kanemoto, George Inouke, myself. And we would have a get together on a Friday night and have a drink before we went home. [Interviewer: Bamboo Seven] You know, we got to know each other and Wayne says, ‘You know, we're not going to get any press this way. We gotta all stick together, and pool our energy together. And if we ever, if we were back to somebody with, everybody stick with one person and we, we agreed, that that was the only way we can go.' So we say, 'Well, there was Ishimatsu and Ishimatsu was already quite well known among the Caucasian people.' And so I say, 'Look, Ike, why don't you get out there?' And he says, 'Oh, why me?' 'You're the only one that understands English. The rest of the people don't understand English.' So he said, 'Okay.' So he decided, well, he'd put his name out there and he, he said 'No, I think Norm would be a better person.' I said, 'Well, we'll come to Norm, but you, you start the thing. And so I.K. started to getting involved in many things and maybe they were small political things, but they grew into larger, larger things. And I.K lead the way. In the meantime, we had Norm had graduated from high school, and Norm associated quite well with many Caucasian people, and his classmates all liked him. So he, when he came out, he was, might say, associating with much more vigor or more and where there was a sense that we could appoint Norm to appoint– and there was a city council and there was the person that resigned. I don't know why he resigned, but he resigned. And so we asked the chairman, that... I.K. did, asked the chairman if we could appoint Norm Mineta. So it was fine with them and most of the council people said, 'Okay.' But, there were many people in their community that opposed it. But he got in. And then right after that we, we pushed for I.K. for something. And Mike Honda came. And this-- this person, Mike Honda. Okay, so we got it and that Mike-- Mike declared that he was gonna run, so we said, 'Okay.' And by pushing it, we mean we had to raise money. We had to give money and, and, were people like I.K., I.K. knew the right person to give the money to. And so, Mike-- Mike got elected too, right after that. Cuz who else was there? Oh then one day at Tom McEnery’s place, they had, we had a fundraiser for Governor Warren. He came and uh, I.K. went up to the then candidate Warren and said, 'You know, governor, when you get elected will you, uh, appoint somebody for, a Japanese to a municipal judge? And the governor said, 'Oh, definitely, definitely.' And that's how I.K. Ishimatsu got [Wayne Kanemoto] appointed and, and then um…

(Interviewer) Yosh, was that Wayne Kanemoto?

Wayne Kamemoto, yeah. Judge of a municipal court

(Interviewer) And he was appointed by…

Governor Brown-- Governor Warren. I guess once you’re appointed, you're appointed because I never, never remember Governor... I mean, Judge Wayne Kanemoto running again. I.K. was a… I think he got in and he was, uh, associated with more hakujin [whites] than the Japanese or... Japanese liked I.K.

(Interviewer) Was he a businessman?

Farming.

(Interviewer) So name, name the group again, that you met with? George Inouke, Grant Shimizu, Wayne Kanemoto, and I.K. Shimatsu

(Interviewer) How long did your group stay together?

The group, we stuck together pretty closely. I.K. was instrumental in bringing it all because he probably had more money than any of us We didn't have hardly any money. And we pulled together. And then when... uhh, not George, but when Mike Honda came along, I remember my coming over to my, I was at the swimming pool. And he came by, 'Mike, you got any money?' 'No, I don't have any money.' Well, I think I said, 'I'll give you a thousand.' And I wrote in my check for a thousand dollars. Okay, Mike, lots of luck, and we'll push, we'll push for it, and you go ahead with.’ And then Mike said 'Okay, thanks.' He left. Right after that he... he got elected.

Transformation & Change Timeframe 34:56 >> 38:00

(Interviewer) Can you, can you talk about some of the barriers that your group faced and when you tried to fundraise and support a candidate?

And also, we had some, some nikkeis didn't help us. They didn't give us money. But most of us thought about, thought about pushing the niseis forward. We thought of it, but most of them were poor hmm. It wasn't that they didn't give; they were just poor. So maybe give $25, $40, $50. But uh…

(Interviewer) Was it difficult to find candidates to run for office?

No, it wasn't difficult. We just didn't have money to give to the person that we asked to run. When Mike Honda ran, and we didn't have any money.

(Interviewer) Yosh, why do you think it was so important that Japanese were represented in politics in Santa Clara County?

It was because we had ideas and people getting appointed for things and they were this-- that or didn't have anything. They were just being appointed because they had-- but because they had somebody politically well known appointing them, they always, always got it. But we, the Japanese niseis, know that certain people like Mike [Honda], Wayne [Kanemoto], and Grant [Shimizu]. We knew that they were not afraid to get up in front and speak.

Timeframe 38:00 >> end

Well, the Japanese were...the Japanese niseis, they were, were, because they had been in the camps, they were they withheld their feedings. And they didn't say much, and I knew that they had the same feeling I did. 'Damn these guys,' you know. But outside I felt that we did, we didn't do do anything. We didn't have a lots of money to give or, and we knew we couldn’t get certain people elected. I.K. didn't say much; he was a, was a strong post that we, everybody went to when they had problems, and that helped us. Someone to go to. Otherwise we didn't have anybody to go to.

(Interviewer) So by putting this group together you were going to make sure that you had somebody.

We had to have.

(Interviewer) And that's when you started to give your money to promote Japanese American candidates?

I started at first by giving a little bit, giving a little bit, after all. And today I keep thinking, well, 'So-and-so's running. Ok?' I feel like we need to start a fund of some kind. And then we would around and get $15, $20. But we already had a fund. Maybe, maybe by $100. We, we're going to add to that, you know, and the thing is… I know-- like Tom McEnery was running. He, and he was Tom McEnery, but he didn't have money. I gave $100 one time. And said, 'Oh, geez, thanks.' Then Susan Hammer was running as the mayor... I was at Almaden where there was nobody there except my I was the only Japanese there, and I gave her couple hundred dollars. And these things always helped because later on, she would appoint me to... to a position on her as council. She would ask me if I would go to Japan with her. I don't know. But these things help because by going I got to know, know her.

Well, one of the things was, if, if the Japanese, if we had some stubborn people that wouldn't cooperate, we’d say, 'Let's pull together and maybe I think we can beat so-and-so in the race.' And they say, 'Nah, it’s waste time,' or something like that. Well some of the people would think it was a waste of time because they have not been involved in anything. They would just… we would be… and the few bucks they gave us would be a waste of time. But we worked on, like, on uh, Governor Warren with one thing, and that was Wayne Kanemoto. He was the only one... we wanted him to be the judge. He didn't just go out there and become... I don't think he would have been able to make it. We were, Wayne Kanemoto, myself, and just the two of us and somehow the governor know who we were, and say, 'Well. Yosh, and Wayne, it's good to see you guys.' And Wayne would be the spokesman, he’d say, 'Governor, we have a problem, I wonder if you could help us out.' And... and, 'What? Tell me.' 'Well, we have a Japanese community here, Fresno has a Japanese community. So-and-so has a Japanese community. They all have a Japanese municipal court judge. Can you appoint a Japanese as a municipal court judge?' And we had already given money to the... We'd already given money-- money to the governor and others, and then he'll say, 'Don't worry, or I'll get you a judge.' That's how this all started.

(Interviewer) Did you did you find that you had trouble getting potential Japanese candidates to run for office because of our personality of being the silent minority, of being, you know, not looking out and not doing things assumed by politicians?

No. Yeah, well, I had trouble [finding]... qualified. By qualified, I mean, the well-known, that are always helping out.