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Yosh Uchida - Part 5 of 5

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

Transcript of Yosh Uchida

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Narrative & Identity Timeframe 0:00 >> 4:01

Well, I think I probably helped my students or people working at my office, and I would say, 'What are you doing?' 'Well, I'm trying to finish this work.' 'Is it going to take a lot time?' 'Why not my brains? But I'm maybe some hard... shoulder work.' 'What do you mean, shoulder work?' 'Well, using my hands.' 'Oh, I see, why don't you go to college?'Well, I just attended the year last year. I figured out I didn't have money.' 'Well, you gotta figure out some way.' 'Well, I just didn't have any money so I didn't go'. 'Would you go if you had some money?' 'I probably would.' And many of these people, nikkeis, and they have approached me after they graduated. And they say, 'Mr. Uchida, I wanted to tell you how much you meant to me.' 'What do I do?' 'Don't you remember? You asked me if I wanted to go to school.' Well I'm not sure, 'Oh, but it sounds familiar.' You would say, 'Well, you told me I should go to school. And I did go. And I'm so glad I went. I graduated and my family is proud of me. And I am proud of myself for having graduated.' I said, 'That's great. Are you going into anything special?' 'Oh, I just got a job with a... not a carpenter, but with a... real estate agency.' Oh, that's good.' 'I think I'm going to like it.' 'Who's your boss?' 'Well, I met him in judo. And, you know, his name is Raul.' 'Oh, yeah. Is he a good boss?' 'He's excellent.' 'He thinks the world of you.' 'He does?' 'How was that? What did I do for him?' He says, 'You taught him judo, you tell him, you gave him self respect and lots of confidence.' ‘Oh, that's great. I'm glad I was able to do that.' And so on and so forth. And life seemed to go on.

Narrative & Identity Timeframe 4:01 >> 12:08

Well, there's a lot of nonprofit organizations in the community without any profit. And so if I can get people to give a few bucks... and then it would help them along. And this is important because I look at the organization and the organization does something good for the community, for the people that don't have too much money. And I... they want to help, but they don't have the money to put into the thing. So I talk with the field people that, 'Hey, Jimmy, they're trying to organize... the community, that would have some money to help people that are going into social work. Can you help with a few bucks?' They say, 'Why do I have to help?' I said, 'Because people like you who don't want to help, who want to help but don't want to help, that-- that's why we become what we are.' 'Where do you mean? Where? Where we are?’ Well, look at all of the niseis. They could do a lot more. They don't, though, because they don't care...People like you with money and would not give a cent.' 'Do you think I should give something?' 'Sure you should.' And they say, ‘Yosh, don't forget I gave.’ And I'm coming back I'm-- I said, 'I'm glad you're going to continue because it's gonna help the community.' Sometimes, you're lucky you get somebody to donate and then they didn’t expect to donate. And, you know, it's not... you might say, fun, but I always felt that it was an accomplishment. If I can get someone to donate to a good cause. And there were many... not many, but quite a few nikkeis that wanted to give, but didn't know how to give. And I felt, well, come on, you can follow me. And I say this-- 'The purpose you're giving this money is so that the nikkeis of the future will have some money, or toward the education or toward the community or want to start something.' And they said, 'What do you do this for?' I said, 'Why I think that's good for the community and if we have more like you, we'll get a lot further.’ And these are the kinds of things that sometimes, you enjoy doing.

(Interviewer) Yosh, what about of fundraising for some political event, or events outside of…

The political events have to raise money. But. If I find that, if you have given to these political things, next time you go, they know you're coming for certain thing, but they will support you. And I tell them why I need the money. And they say, 'Yosh, I know why you need the money; it's a good cause. Here's $10.' Or something like that. And sometimes they all asked me how much money I have to raise. I say, 'By myself, I gotta raise about $100.' 'Oh, well, I gave you a ten, so I'll give you another ten.' 'Oh, that's fine. And then, there is a receipt for it. Thank you.' And you need to help each other. You’ll will find that and many of the things, everybody thinks for themselves and never think by helping the nikkei is going to be something important. It is important because for us nikkei to move forward, we have to keep on pulling, and we have to help politically, and we have to help students. We have to have many things going that say, 'Don't rely on yourself, but the other people can help you.' And the nikkeis will get there, and listening, nikkeis get there then they can't see it, when I can help a student move forward. I feel like I accomplished something that... they wanted, and they, in turn, will do the same for you, as time goes on and help other students.

Narrative & Identity Timeframe 12:08 >> 17:35

(Interviewer) Yosh, many members in the Japanese American community, or from the community, come to you for advice. Can you talk a little bit about your influence on people wanting your advice on particular things?

That's a tough one but... We are all Japanese Americans; we're all struggling to get ahead; and we all have a tough time; and somebody has a great idea of pulling together. And my, maybe my school bus, so that the people can go to Japanese school. And the Japanese school is a good cause, good for the nikkeis. Now we have to buy the bus. That's when everybody has to pull together, and it is tough because lots of times, these rough times hit. And when your-- you might say strawberries at a... the lowest price, or some other guy says, 'Oh, my tomatoes all burned,' or something like that, and is tough to go-- but it is part of your responsibility, community responsibility. That most people don't understand. They think, 'Just give me money.' You have to get in and help. And it is a very hard thing when the nikkeis made it through, especially the niseis, who right after... coming out of camp, it was very difficult to get jobs... to do things, the... and people had a hard time raising money... and covering these kinds of costs. Yeah it was necessary. And I remember people putting up the money so that we could have a school bus. And using the school bus, we were able to go to Japanese school. And from Japanese school, we learn something about we are Japanese. If we don't do things correctly, people would look down on the Japanese people. So always do things right. And this was the kind of thing that, at Japanese school that I learned, that I always remember, that... don't forget you're Japanese, and Japanese have to do it right. Otherwise, people look down on you. And I felt, 'Wow, that's true.' And as time went on... whenever I saw a Japanese at Japanese school, I pat them on the back and said, 'Hey, you're doing real well in school.' And they're saying, 'Well, I have to do well because of my... my school teacher, and my parents want me to do well, so that we look good.' And I say, 'Wow, that's nice.'

Transformation & Change Timeframe 17:35 >> 21:22

(Interviewer) Yosh, do you want to talk a little bit about when people from the community come and ask you to sit and be a board member for their organization?

Well, sometimes, I think being a board member is good, but sometimes the board member, they have ideas that will fail. And I don’t wanna throw water on the fire, but I say, ‘Look here. You need money here. You need money here. You need money here… But do you have these things covered?' And they'd look, 'No, never thought of it.' And I say, 'Well, that's what I see. If we can get it covered; that’s a good idea.’ And... or, someone comes up with the idea, if we can help them, that's great. But if you don't, don't take them around because they're trying to do something good for the community.

(Interviewer) Yosh, can you talk a little bit about how you work with the Japan Society, and connect them to the Japanese Americans, nonprofits, in... in the county?

Well, one of the things that I-- judo is one thing that, I found that it helps, and everybody to be able to practice that, and if we get people to practice, people practice, they get to know each other, and once, once they're able to communicate, they become very good friends. And the one, the one thing that they had, the Caucasian-- or a white people had, was, 'Why, those Japs?' But that seems to disappear as they get to know each other. They work out. They get; they throw; they laugh. They go out and have a snack to eat after. And this type, this type of friendship really help, because it's everlasting kind of friendship, and I found that when I was going to high school. I was never a star athlete, but I enjoyed whatever we played football, basketball, track and field.

Transformation & Change Timeframe 21:22 >> 36:12

In football, I was small. So the we had an A, B, C, D. A, you have to be good. B, be mediocre, now that was us. Most of the Japanese, we were not a big, big guys, you know Japanese, we... but we were small. But we were second exponent, height, weight, class. I think that was it. 'Make a score.' We used to have fun, and we used to meet many other nikkeis in other high schools, and we play them, and they would come back and say, 'Gosh Yosh, you sure hit hard!' They said, 'Well, you shouldn't run so hard.' So I-- 'We have, to hit you hard to stop you!' And we laugh about, and that was, all of the nikkeis, and we got to know each other in an area like where I came from in Garden Grove. And then it extended all the way to Huntington Beach, Anaheim, all over. Well, we got to know the nikkeis very well. And it paid off, paid off, then as we grow up, we graduate, then we find ourselves going to junior college, or we were going to college. And they say, 'Hey, yeah, I remember you. You played for Garden Grove.' ‘Oh, yeah.' 'Do you remember? Hittin’ me so hard I had-- I laid there.' 'Oh, you play, we play against each other?' I said, ‘Yeah.' You know, something like football. You get hit, you get to know each other. But later on we all were getting smaller group. We were... we were... tied together. Because, it was not that we're junior college guys. We were, we were, we were Japanese. And we stuck together to help one another.

(Interviewer) Yosh, did you ever find yourself being approached by someone from the community to ask for your help? And you felt that they took advantage of you? Not in a good way, but maybe in a…

No, I never did. But, I like to see people have ideas of moving forward with new and... new steps, and I listen to them and I think of the consequences of something that, which they propose. And I say it's not, too, too smart, I ask that they don't pursue it because there were flaws in their idea. And this is really tough because we have all kinds of leaders. We have good leaders, we have some bad leaders, and we have political leaders. We have rich leader. And, you know. [chuckles]

(Interviewer) What do you think are the ones that are important to move to move people in in a forward direction in the community?

One thing, there has to be something that we can accomplish, accomplish by not just one person. By, quite a few persons that can keep pushing forward, and it takes little time. But if it's done cautiously, what good... good ideas. I think…

Well the idea that I had, one was, bonenkai. Bonenkai is, is... people that came from Japan and people that are here in the United States here to get together and to get to know each other. Not too many people thought it was a good idea, but I said, the bonenkai is not to put down the people from Japan. The bonenkai is to help them, and once they get to know each other, they will-- can help help you or you could help them. And this is something that a lot of people don't understand. Because many people from Japan-- it's bonenkai, or it's Japanese, and the nikkei, Japan-- from Japan and the nikkeis get together and they get to know each other. Now, for some, it's important. For nikkei, not nikkei--. For people from Japan, they would like that help because many, they they don't know America too well and they have problems and they say, 'Do you think I should do this myself, or ask some nisei that knows something about it?' And they would say. 'That's the smart way. Ask Mr. Tanaka here. Yeah he's, he's... he's in, and he's in, oh, in taxes. I think he can help you. And they say, you know, help. You're not doing a lot of help. There's some help, and the people from Japan would really appreciate some of... the, these are kind of things that I think would be helpful to use. Now they have letters coming from Japan as... they think we should do something, some people saw that group in Japan, so not too well known or... to go-- to good, and that we should stay away, but I think we have an opportunity to do something great.

But we're... typical niseis were holding back on many of these things. And I think it’s a good idea to start stepping out there. And I think that the niseis themselves, could learn how to speak better. By speak better, I mean speak... before or make our speak. Or you know, sometimes I tell people in the follow, 'I had not to-- two years ago, student from San Jose State who graduated, he went back to Hawai'i, but his speech, he was-- his speech was terrible. So I said 'Why don't you learn how to speak before you go home.' He said, 'You mean, make a speech?' I said, 'Yeah, so take the speech course you have two years, two years left' So he took the speech course, and when he stepped off the plane in Hawai'i, he said the principal of the high school was waiting for him at the gate. He said, 'Look, I'm so glad you came. We're having an assembly today and I want to make a speech for me.' 'Me make a speech?' He said, 'I want you to make a speech.' So he said, the principal said, 'Go up.' We went up, he looks at the class, all made up of juniors and seniors, he says, 'Coach, you did for me, for something I will never, never forget your for.' He said, 'You told me to take that speech-- you kept telling me, I took that speech course, I got to Hawai'i, and my principal was right there waiting for me. He drove me to the high school and he said, before the student body, he introduced me. I didn't know what to say, but I spoke. And the speech, he, the principal said was very, very good. These kinds of things I never knew. And you told me.'

And I think today, niseis, many niseis still don't speak out in front, especially in political... political room, where there's a lot of people assembled. I mean, there are many things we could do, but that's one thing that I had always kept, kept in mind.

Joy & Cultural Resistence Timeframe 36:12 >> 45:07

Oh, one of the thing my father and mother always said, 'Don't forget your roots. You’re Japanese. You’re American. And I don't... don't disgrace the Japanese race.’ I said, 'What do I do?' That-- they were always, get a good education, be able to speak at any place, and speak for the nikkeis... Something that would, that will help them. And I think so I always kept in my back of my mind.

Oh yea, we live, I lived in a farm and right around we had many Caucasian people; they were not farmers, but they they hired-- they had few chickens. It was, I was, it was good. I mean the had chickens. We had chickens. We never thought of their chickens being there... our chickens other there; we always, if we fed them. And they came in and fed on our side of the fence. That's alright. One time there were, chickens were in the backyard and, and and they were eating the feed. I don't know what kind of food they had but anyway they were they were eating the feed, then, then he came over and said, 'Hey, you know, your chickens are eating up all my chickens' food.' ‘Oh, yeah. How bad is it?’ ‘Oh, it’s real bad.’ Oh I guess, I guess you have to chase them over.' He said, 'No, I'll kill them.' I say, 'You don't wanna do that.' He said, 'I’d do that. I’d do that.' I said, 'Look, we're neighbors. If you kill them, we will become... anti-neighbors.' And next thing we know, we never let your chicken come over, and kill them. He says, 'Yeah, you’re right.' So we... we just shook hands and said, let's just be friends and forget about the thing. And I think... we had an understanding with your neighbors are very important. And it's not that we don't try to be good neighbors. I think other people are not trying to be. You're trying to be neighbors, but little things upset people. If we can correct all these things, I don't think we have any problem.

(Interviewer) So Yosh, what are some of those little things that we need to correct?

I think one of these is very difficult. We should get to know our neighbors... at school... students. Instead of, instead of saying, ‘get lost.’ Well depending on the area, some areas haven’t improved any; the others seem to be improved. And I can... many of the improvements is not... going in there. But getting to know your neighbor, like, you have the... 442nd, Japanese battalion, or the MIS. All these people, although they were Japanese, they fought for what they believe... that would help we were helping the future of our existence in this part of earth. I know one of my best friends was a Caucasian, and he was a fighter, fighter pilot, and just before the end of the war, he was shot down by the Japanese. I felt real bad. But his brothers, there were three of them. They... they said, 'That's why they fought for. And I'm proud of both of them. This is his older brother.' And I think we had done a good job... so that the Sullivan brothers understood that.

Timeframe 45:07 >> 47:17

(Interviewer) What is your friend's name? Your best.

Tom Sullivan, my friend's name.

(Interviewer) He's a good friend…Was he your friend in grammar school or high school?

Grammar school and high school.

(Interviewer) Oh, that's a long time. Yeah. Who is your friend with the last name Tashima?

Tashima was my roommate when I was going to San Jose State. Taki Tashima. Well, Taki lived about, oh, I'd say maybe a mile away from my home. And we were not that close friends, but it's the area that crossed Huntington Beach Boulevard and Garden Grove Boulevard. And I lived on Garden Grove Boulevard. Whenever we had to run over for maybe a Coke or something like, we would go to Taki’s where they they ran sort of a not a regular, but half grocery store, halfway, for like pops and ice creams. Taki's dad was running the grocery store right on the corner.

(Interviewer) What else do they have in Taki's store? What was above Taki's store?

Yeah, they had some Japanese food there.

Timeframe 47:17 >> 52:11

The person I really liked and enjoyed was a man named Sam Della Maggiore. Sam Della Maggiore was... rushing called San Jose State, and I got to know him. Oh, I.K. was smart too. I.K. wasn't able to do too much because as was he was a nisei, sort of a young nisei, and he looked old but he was sort of a young nisei, and he wasn't able to do much. But Sam Della Maggiore was a high school and college coach so he... he was able to-- and besides, he had a 20 acre ranch, right close by the school. So when I went and told him that I had to leave, he said, 'Well, what for?' 'I can't get a place to stay.' And he says, 'Well, nobody would rent to me?’ ‘Why?' ‘Because I'm a Japanese.' Sam Della Maggiore says, ‘We'll see about that.' 'Oh, I can't get a job either. They already turned me down.' 'Why? Didn't you serve in the army?' But that didn't mean anything. So, 'Why they turn you down?' 'Because I was a Japanese and... I-- Japanese drawing the blood from Caucasians in the hospital... the patients wouldn't like it.' And he went to a hospital and he got it squared away and I got a job.

He had a three, three room shack. It didn't rain, it didn't get wet and, and when it rained it'd leak. The kitchen was sloped and it was small-- it was small kitchen, and and was worse, was worse than the living room and bathroom. And we had another, well, another room for my daughter. And my... in the... in the back-- dining room, a small dining room, my, my wife, or my in-laws slept there. And we made the bed every night, and then we went to our bedroom, and we would live there. And my daughter lived in the bedroom. So we managed to live like that for three years.

Timeframe 52:11 >> 53:46

(Interviewer) I want to just kind of spark your memory a little, and you could say your own words if you want to do that. But through I.K., you realized, you know, financially what it has to take-- And I.K. had the financial means to help you in causes. And you realize and that's part of why you fundraise. Because everything to get things done, the majority of it needs money. And it's just comments you've made over the years about your relationship with I.K.

Well, my relationship was very good. And he who was for the nikkeis moving forward. He said, 'You know, Yosh, when we have a fundraiser we should all get together.' And sure enough, whenever we had a fundraiser for people, like Mr. [Mike] Honda, we’d be there. And he would help us contact people who give funds and try to help.

Transformation & Change Timeframe 53:46 >> 1:01:06

(Interviewer) Yosh, what do you think about the rise of anti-Asian hate crimes? What actions do Japanese Americans need to take to combat this rise in hate crimes?

You know, you're throwing something out that even the government that we have today don't know how to handle. But all of this started many years ago when I, we were kids. Now when we were kids, we went to school. There were a lot of Caucasians, Mexicans, and there were some Chinese. Then-- then, we went to a school that was all white... and the Japanese and the Mexicans were moved out. The Mexicans were moved to a nice new section, a new building. I thought, gee, that was funny. You have to be Mexican to have to be moved to this section. But as time went on, the Mexican stayed and we move from different school. We went to grammar school, then to Lincoln, and then we went to Washington, then we went to Garden Grove High School. And all that time, I never saw any Mexican. But discrimination like that started a long time ago. I think it's going to be very difficult, then at the same time, it's not that difficult. For one, education. They never gave... they never gave, the Mexican, an education. The, we went to Japanese schools, the Japanese school teacher says, ‘Don’t you people do anything bad because it's a reflection on us in Japan-Japanese community.' And so we never had any problem.

(Interviewer) What do you think is the most important lesson?

You know, that's hard. Yeah, I think it's the easier among the Japanese to learn. We have the isseis, niseis, and concentration camp, and all of that background, and now we have to move forward, and if we keep moving forward, we are intelligent bunch, and we can get up there, and already during the-- look at the niseis. They have done a lot, not only in the field of agriculture, but in other professions. If we keep moving slowly but surely, we can we can clean this out. However, if they keep continuing with this... discrimination, it's going to be very difficult. I think the Japanese can get over. All they have to do is work harder, get up there, and they can get up there. Because they all have the education; they have the smarts. They can move, maybe, a short inch at a time, but they will move. I believe all this will come down, and find the niseis are not that dumb. They look dumb. [Laughter]. They are smart; they, practically every nisei has a college education. And little by little, they'll keep pushing and they will be up in political field. Look at Mike Honda, I mean…

(Interviewer) You said you think that the majority of the niseis have a college education. I mean the majority of the sanseis? The majority of the niseis that I know came out of camp and had to work the fields and didn't they an education. It was the few that did get a college education but sanseis have.

You're, you're, you're, right they're more in sanseis now, and the sanseis can get an education, but some of them are started off as well. What’s you’re gonna do. It’s gonna do a lot for them as time goes on.

Narrative & Identity Timeframe 1:01:06 >> end

(Interviewer) Yosh, how did you meet your best friend? How did you meet Tom Sullivan?

I was at grammar school.

(Interviewer) What did you like about him and what do you think he liked about you?

Well, I think... I didn't… I think he-- what I liked about him was, he was open minded about everything. I wasn’t a ‘Jap’ or anything. I was a student.

(Interviewer) Did you play with him after school?

Oh, yeah.

(Interviewer) Did you play sports with him?

Uh huh. This was very important. I think that we-- we didn't-- The nikkeis didn't associate too much...like my mother used say, 'You have to associate and learn to be able to get along with all the hakujin [white people].'

(Interviewer - off video) Yeah. Yosh, if you don't mind, when you were talking about the Sullivan brothers, I'm going to ask you a question that's kind of very personal, but you had a very look of... sadness and, recalling, you know, when you recall good friends under difficult situations. When you were talking about that, what were you feeling when you said that your best friend was shot down by the Japanese?

You know, at that time, many of our friends got shot down, but this one particularly... hurting because he was a good friend of mine and he was a fighter pilot. He was, was that kind of gung ho guy. I just didn't know what to say. It was almost at the end of the war too.

(Interviewer) It's almost like you were losing a brother.

Well, I could tell you how close we were. He was playing football, B team, we weren't that big, so we were on the B team. Yeah, but the B team had some of the smartest guys. And Tom was a center, and he would be in the back and say, 'Okay, Yosh, alright.' He'll say...The quarterback will call out. ‘Okay, Hike!' And Tom would just pass the ball; he was a center. So he would get the ball; he would pass it to me. And I was a fullback right behind him; I get the ball, and I would hit him in the butt. Then he'll make about two, two yards, and I would fall on top of him. And we made the first down. [Laughter]. So that's how I played football. And then one time we were playing Laguna Beach High School. I'll never forget. I was, we had, uh, one down [left]... and one yard we had to go or something like that. Oh, [inaudible] and one yard to go. So Tom said, 'Yosh, this should be easy.' I said, 'Okay, Tom.' So I arrived back there and the ball comes to me. I grabbed it and tuck in the wrist, and I run. I hate-- I don't know, Tom was always there. He's not there! He's gone. And all I see out front is the beautiful Pacific sky-- I mean, Pacific Ocean, all of us go, yeah, nobody, nobody, around. And I had that thing all to myself. And I thought to myself, 'Oh my god, I'm going to make a touchdown.' First time. I had never made touchdown. And as I, I started run and now that's where the problem started. If I been a slow guy just... jogging along, I might've made it to the end of the, end the pole, but I though, 'Oh my God.' I looked left to right to straight ahead, all blue. So yeah, I started to run. I tripped. The ball popped. I was the ball... ball pops up, somebody from Laguna Beach falls on it, and they say, 'Laguna Beach, first down.' So that's that was my-- my career in football. [Laughter].

(Interviewer) I think your best memory is where your best friend wasn't there.

He he was there.

(Interviewer) But he wasn't where he was supposed to be.

(Interviewer) No, he made the hole for him.

That's right. It was open, the whole place was open.

(Interviewer) It's called trust. He said, 'Yosh!'

I know I, I always look back at that and say, 'Life is funny. You had nothing to obscure you, the whole path was open.' And I...ran, the ball popped up, I saw a guy pick it up and there was the end of my whole football career. [Laughter]