I was born in a place called Calexico, California, it's right on the border of California and Mexico. And it's called Calexico.

(Interviewer) That's a border town. And what year was that?

1920, April 1st.

(Interviewer) Huh? April 1st. That was no fool's joke

Hahaha, yeah. Right.

(Interviewer) April 1, 1920, was it? 1920. My parents came from a place called Kumamoto in Japan.

(Interviewer) So it’s the southern prefecture of Kyushu.

Kyushu. Right.

(Interviewer) Fukuoka.

That's right.

(Interviewer) Were you ever back in Kumamoto?

Oh I was back there one year, just when my parents went back. My father and mother went back to Japan as a “no-no boy.”

(Interviewer) Oh, no kidding. What year was that?

Or let's see, it was 1946. So. '47. You know, today many people say, they figure that the no-no, you were you were disloyal to the United States. But that was not the case because my my mother called me that night, after they had disced, the disced, all the strawberries that were ready to be picked, and they plowed the tomato pants all under. And it was something they had, they had worked for, for many years, and now it was just to be… And that's what they did... disc the strawberries under, and they plowed tomatoes under. And they thought that was fun. But I said, 'I don't blame them for going, no-no.' Right at that time, because my parents were in tears and my brothers were in tears because they saw this coming and they thought that it was the worst thing that they could do as... right at that moment, they said it was a no-no right away. So in Calexico, my parents had a dairy farm and they milked cows every day, every morning, and they got it out to the market.

(Interviewer) Oh, and did they have tomatoes and strawberries also, or?

No, they just had dairy.

(Interviewer) So what camp, or were you relocated, or.

We were sent to Poston, Arizona.

(Interviewer) And the assembly area was, where? You remember?

And assembly area was… They, they moved right away. They didn't have to go to like, you know, stables in Los Angeles or anything like that and they were shipped right on to a train and then car ride to Poston, Arizona.

And this woman discharged people and says, 'Are you, uh, Mr. Uchida, yeah, you’re at the head of the group.' 'What do you mean, have the group?' 'Well, you you can be discharged almost immediately because of your injury.' I said, ‘Oh, that’s that.’ And sure enough, they discharged me right away. In December, they discharged me, and I rushed home because school was going to start in January first. And I wanted to get back to school, and I get in, I got there and I came up to the school, and they said, 'Oh, how many years?' They can figured out that I had enough years to get two years' credit, and I was made a sophomore, and I was entered as a student at that era. Right there. And... and then that time had a director of athletics named Tiny Hotram [sp]. Tiny was a great big guy who, he was both six feet seven, weighed about 250 pounds. He says, 'You know, you've been recommended to teach judo.' 'Me?' He says, 'Yeah, you.' And he looked at me, and says, 'How can this little guy teach judo, you know, with all those guys?' I said, 'Well, I don't know. Somebody recommended.' Well, the guy that recommended was man Sam Della Maggiore [sp]. He was a teacher at San Jose High School, and he, he, he taught wrestling. But he had seen me wrestle, and he said, he said, 'Oh, yeah, that guy can... he can wrestle. He's a good judo guy.' So Tiny Hotram said, 'You know I'm looking for a judo man. And Sam Della Maggiore said, ‘You're good judo…’ Well I was... ‘Well, I want you to teach judo.' And he says, 'Why isn't there another teacher?' He said, ‘No, we had a guy named Mel Bruno, but he left because he thought he think he could get a better job... teaching judo in the military.' I said, 'Oh, okay.' And I, I really liked the job because I didn't have any job.

And when I went to look for a place to stay, the lady there said, we don’t have a place. I said, 'Don't you remember me? I used to stay here when I went to school.' She says, 'I don't remember.' But she remembered me. I couldn't get a job. I, I didn't ever have a place to stay. Then Sam said, 'How are you doing?' I say, 'I don't have a place to stay.' He said, 'Well, why don't you come over and live with me?' So I said, 'Where's that?' 'Oh, it's not too far away.' So it was about a mile and a half away. I went to his orchard, a year-- a prune orchard. And he had, he had about 40 acres and he said, 'You know, I don't know too much about, what you know about prunes, but I bought this during the war, so why don't you help me when... when we harvest the thing?' I said, 'Sure.' He said, 'You know, the place, back of the house, there's a, there's a small house there. And if you wana stay, you can go back there.' We were around back there and it had a kitchen, a bedroom, a toilet. And Sam said, 'You know, it doesn't... it doesn't rain here, but I think it'll be okay. And if you, and your May, your wife, would you like to stay?' So we got, we bought some stuff and we, we, we stayed there until I graduated from college and while I was staying there, my in-laws, the two of them, the Hirakis, they came to stay with her. So they, they stayed in the dining room. And every night we would set the dining room up. It was tipped over like that and we put a brick under it. They would stay there. We had a bedroom, and there was a bath there and we're in the living room. We, we, my brother, brother and sister-in-law came. So they stayed there. And that's how I survived. And we had a baby girl. So she, she she-- had a bedroom all by herself. And that's how we survived while we were getting, getting adjusted.

That’s how we, I went to school the first year, then I would look for a job at San Jose hospital, they said, 'Well, you know, you might have a lot of experience doing all these things, but you know, the American public wouldn't like to have you. You are barred from them.' I said, 'Why not? I was very good at it because I work with all of the Virginia returning veterans.’ They say, 'They might have been happy with you, but, well, people here do not appreciate these.’ You know, I don't get a job. ‘Well, I'm sorry, but you can’t… we will not be hiring right now.' And so that was then... then Sam Della Maggiore said, 'Oh, that’s not good.' So he went to see O'Connor Hospital, and there was a doctor named John Calcagno, and he was a young guy, and Sam said, 'Would you would you hire this guy? He's my friend and--' And Mr., Dr. Calcagno was a student of Sam Della Maggiore’s when he was going to school. So he said, 'Well, let me talk to Sister Bernice, the director, and the Sister Bernice, looked at me and says, 'Of course!' And she talked to the pathologist and I got it, and I got the job and... and with the approval of the pathologist and, and... and the doctor. And so I started working there. And every... every day I got there early, and I cleaned up the place that that, I cleaned up the sink. And there was always junk that was left there. I cleaned up and got everything ready. And when the med-techs arrived, it was, was everything was set. They had, they were to go on and clean, go get the blood.

Well, I was a good tech, and I studied everything that they threw at us, and and they were, some of them, one of, one of the lady was not nice. I remember she didn’t like Japanese, and really one time I, I discovered a disease that causes all kinds of... all kinds of, um, physical conditions and it was a, it was a parasite. And I got it. I picked it out of this petri dish that we work with because they the doctors had a shy hand. They showed me they were very good doctor. They said this, this is something you have to be aware of. Well I said 'Why?' 'This will cause all kinds of parasite up here, all kinds of parasitic disease. And if you don't catch it, it will spread and you’ll have the whole camp sick.' So yeah. And I looked, and you see that white spot, that's a thing or and... or a white parasite and you want, you don’t want to fool around with it.

And so and then the next time I saw was gonorrhea. A little baby that was born in O'Connor's hospital had gonorrhea in the eye, and it was very bad venereal disease, and apparently... the soldier had brought it back from overseas someplace, and the doctors looked at it, they knew, they knew that I was on the right track. But this lady would, run up to the director of the hospital to tell them that I was showing, reporting, something that was not there. And I said 'I wouldn't be able to do that.' I said, 'I've been brought up with good tech.' But they, the doctors and they agreed with me and all these peopled cleared because we got a clear record of time. They knew that I was telling the truth.

Then the opportunity showed up, and a job offering came, and I and I said, 'What is it?' 'It's a medical tech job.' And I said, 'Oh... well, what are looking for?’ ‘Somebody with experience.’ Well I don't have experience but I, I like the tech job, and the doctor who interviewed me said, ‘Okay. We'll give you the job.' And this job was running the medical laboratory, and I wasn't even licensed. I, I was just a fresh, fresh young guy that's in a laboratory. So they just put me in. But immediately right after that, I took a test, and I passed it, which I didn’t have a problem because I been studying already. I studied the book completely. I knew everything about the book because I took it and studied that by paragraph, by paragraph. I would take a paragraph and read it. I go back and re-read it until I, I covered the whole book. I know medical bacteriology. And, I guess I wasn’t too dumb. I was a pretty good student. I just took the exam. I passed the whole thing. I took three exams at the same time: one was parasitology, one was medical technology, and in this-- and in public… the guy in public health told me, 'This is stick with medical technology.' I said, 'Why?' he says, 'You'll be involved in too many politics if you go into public health, chance of your advancing will be nil. Take the job at hospital; stay with the hospital.' I did that. And at the same time, school started, and I took medical technology. I didn't have I, I… and of course with the background that the doctors have given me, I was able to breezing [sic] through, through the classes and the-- the professor thought I was right, but I had an advantage, which is all of what these two, two doctors had taught me. So it was easier for me to go through and... and do all the tests and everything. And because I was always the age, they thought I was smart, but everything I already knew the course. [chuckles]

(Interviewer) So all the way from Cheyenne…

Right. Yeah. … Right. Yeah. … then Fort, he was from Stanford, and they had helped me.

I used that in my position where I could do. Like I was. Uh, taking judo from January to graduation and, uh, using those opportunities, I tried, tried to tell people. Now, if you're Japanese you have to better study a lot harder than Caucasian people because you're going to need it to get jobs, and as you get your jobs, you have to be able to perform. Many people think they graduate college or they have a job automatically coming to them, but that's not so. Or you go and you apply it right on with-- with your application. There'll be about 30 of their Caucasian applications, and they will sort through this, and they say, 'Oh, look, at this, here's a Jap who didn't even graduate from college!' And you're thrown out right away. So I said, ‘First thing, graduate from college.’ And that was-- that to me was the most important thing. And especially among the nisei. Yeah. Although I talked to all the students in, in my class, most important was the niseis. Because of the niseis, 'Oh I don't like them.' And I said, 'You might like it, but he might not like you either.' And if you can't show them that you are good student, he's never gonna give you a good grade then. He'll pass you. And to me that was very important to the college nikkei students.

(Interviewer) Do you remember how many police officers, how many students you trained that became police officers?

Oh, I didn't, I didn't know. But I know what San Jose, San Jose right there, walking down Fifth Street, when they the... the niseis. Okay, were... were in... Poston, Arizona, or up north in Tule Lake. And when the war seemed to be okay, they let all all go out, and the boys, all they saw in the in the camp was military people or police people and they would cry while everyone watches. One of the guys say, ‘Yosh, watch this' 'What?' 'See that kid coming down? See this police officer here? Yeah? Okay, watch.' And the police and the student would walk by with... with when you saw the policeman go and the kid would come out to the side of the street, he would not stay on the other side of the street because this guy was wearing a military outfit, and I thought, 'Wow, it was one of those things.' And so I watched again and... sure enough, the kids paced inside as he walked, that guy did. Wow. They, they had not walked any place except in the camp, and they were always harassed by, by, by military or the police. And rather than they wanna wanna talk with them, they took to the other side of the street.