Diane Honda interview
Item
Title
eng
Diane Honda interview
Description
eng
Diane Honda talks about how her grandparents immigrated from Japan, settling first in Watsonville and then Cressey, her parents' experiences at the Merced Assembly Center and Granada War Relocation Center, her parents life after the war and growing up in the Japanese American community and her family history after the war up to the present.
Creator
eng
Honda, Diane
eng
Tinker, Carlene
Relation
eng
Issei to Gosei Oral History Project
Coverage
eng
Fresno, California
Date
eng
3/8/2019
Identifier
eng
SCMS_igoh_00001
extracted text
>> Carlene Tinker: Good morning, Diane.
>> Diane Honda: Good morning.
>> Carlene Tinker: Welcome to Special Collections. We're located
in the Henry Madden Library at Fresno State. Special Collections
has an extensive collection of stories given by different
groups. OK. And we're going to be giving your story as part of a
new project which we call the Issei to Gosei Project. Basically
our focus is to find out what it's been like for you to live in
the valley and also at the same time, to experience-- to find
out what your experience has been like to be a JapaneseAmerican. OK. Now, before we proceed, I'd like to explain to the
readers, to the visitors of this interview what some of the
terms are that we're using today. The title of our project,
Issei to Gosei, actually is a kind of a condensed version of
five different generations that are going to be interviewed for
this project. So let me define some of those terms. Issei is
those individuals-- are those individuals who came from Japan
way back maybe in the 1800s, early 1900s. Nisei are the first
generation born here, children of the Isseis, OK, but the second
generation of Japanese-Americans. The third generation are the
Sansei, third because they are the grandchildren of the Isseis
but the second born here in United States. Then our children,
you and I happen to be Sanseis, our children are called Yonsei,
the fourth generation, the third born here in the United States.
And finally, our project is extending to the fifth generation
because we know there are some individuals who would be willing
to experience this interview project. And so they’re the fifth
generation. And so, if the project continues beyond that, we'll
be going to the sixth generation, et cetera. So, Diane, if I may
call you that, or what-- if you will please give me your full
name and including your maiden name.
>> Diane Honda: OK. My name is Diane Sadaye, that's my middle
name and Yotsuya is my maiden name and Honda is my married name.
Although I pronounce it Honda because the Honda car is very
popular and advertised a lot in the United States. So it's Diane
Honda.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yes. But the correct pronunciation would be
Honda.
>> Diane Honda: Correct.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right. OK. As I've said, your interview will
become part of the many collections that we have in a digital
form. And these are open to the public to view. Anybody online
can access these. And so your interview will become a permanent
record in this collection, not only for researchers but also for
your family. And I think that in itself is a very significant
contribution. Today is December 5th, Wednesday, December 5th,
2018. And the time is 10:10 a.m. To make your story complete, I
want to start with your family, your grandparents, if I may. So
let's start with your grandparents. And tell me briefly where
your grandparents came from on both sides.
>> Diane Honda: OK. So my father's name is Yukihiro Yotsuya. He
went by Yuki Yotsuya. And his parents came from Fukui-ken in
Japan. They-- From what I understand, they first came to
Watsonville. And then Tomezo and [Masa] were married. But they
came to Watsonville and actually, I think, had a couple of
children there in Watsonville in what's known now as Freedom
Hill. And--but those two passed away. And so then they had four
children after-- or actually six children after that. And they
all survived, sorry. My mother's family has four, but anyway. So
they went in-- Somewhere along the line, they met up with a guy
named Kyutaro Abiko or at least a representative of him. And his
dream was to establish Japanese Christian colonies in the United
States. So-- and they were the Yamato Colonies. And so, the
three in California that I know of are in Turlock, and then the
area I grew up in Cortez and Livingston. And->> Carlene Tinker: OK. Now, I understand there was also another
part of the community called Cressey, is that right?
>> Diane Honda: Yes.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK. Was that close to->> Diane Honda: Livingston.
>> Carlene Tinker: I'm sorry?
>> Diane Honda: It's close to Yamato Colony in Livingston.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh, in Livingston.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: So each of these areas were separate Yamato
Colonies?
>> Diane Honda: Yes.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh.
>> Diane Honda: Yes, they were separate. And they were formed in
different ways like the Livingston-Cressey one had people in it
that were maybe brought a little bit of wealth from Japan. The
Turlock one which didn't survive, I'm not sure what their
background was. But the Cortez one was really immigrants. It was
really immigrant-based. They came not with wealth. And they came
as farmers and definitely as a Christian colony because I have
read stories that they-- that the first thing they did was
establish a church. And the-- Kyutaro Abiko or his
representative, because I'm not really sure that they met him
and that he was the one or if he had family representatives that
helped establish these. But he gave two plots of land to the
community. And they were to be for churches and for community
purposes. So the church I attended, the Cortez Presbyterian
Church was on one of those plots of land, which included an
orchard, so that the church could be supported by the orchard.
And the church members supported that. So that was, you know,
that's very unusual->> Carlene Tinker: Oh, yeah.
>> Diane Honda: -- I think. And then it's Presbyterian because
the early Christian, not the early Christian churches but the
churches of the 1900s, they established mission churches. And
they still do of immigrant populations. And so, the Cortez was a
mission church. And Livingston was a Methodist Mission Church.
But ours is a Presbyterian Methodist Church, I mean mission
church. And I don't really think that they were necessarily
particular that they wanted to follow, you know, John Wesley or
whoever, you know, the founders of these churches were as much
as they got support from these larger congregations. And so->> Carlene Tinker: So this was probably, as I remember, the
Yamato Colony established by Abiko started in maybe the early
1900s, is that correct?
>> Diane Honda: That's correct.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah. I think he purchased the land around
1904, is that about right?
>> Diane Honda: OK. It could be. Yeah. Because I-- my father was
born there and that-- oh, no, my father wasn't born there, I
think my parents who are a part of the-- my grandparents who are
part of the 13 original families->> Carlene Tinker: Is that right?
>> Diane Honda: -- what came there. I want to say probably in
the early 1920s or late 1919.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK. And this is the Yotsuya side.
>> Diane Honda: This is the Yotsuya, the Tomezo Yotsuya.
>> Carlene Tinker: Wow. That is fascinating. Is the-- Are the
colonies-- Well, you said one didn't survive. That was the
Turlock one.
>> Diane Honda: Right.
>> Carlene Tinker: But the Cortez one, is it still in existence?
>> Diane Honda: Yes. Definitely it is still in existence. The
church is just now being taken back by the Presbyterian Church.
And to be following a new immigrant population that would like
to occupy it.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK. So, you do-- do you continue to sponsor
immigrants?
>> Diane Honda: OK. So what happened with that church, OK, what
happened with Cortez was after the war, some of the Cortez
people wanted to have, OK, more than just the original 13 came
to Cortez, it attracted more families. And I'm not sure how many
families there are. But my guess would be somewhere between 30
and 40 families.
>> Carlene Tinker: That are still there?
>> Diane Honda: That came, I would say->> Carlene Tinker: Oh, that came.
>> Diane Honda: -- in the 1950s. And they established the
Buddhist church in what was community neighborhood. And that
Buddhist church actually is still surviving with a minister and
with a congregation. Whereas the Presbyterian Church definitely
died out like its members died out.
>> Carlene Tinker: I'll be darned.
>> Diane Honda: So, there might be a few left. But I'm really
talking about a couple->> Carlene Tinker: Wow.
>> Diane Honda: -- and so.
>> Carlene Tinker: So during World War II, what happened to
these people, did they-- did the-- Obviously they weren't
allowed to stay there.
>> Diane Honda: Right.
>> Carlene Tinker: So what happened to those people during the
war?
>> Diane Honda: So what I'm understanding of that, my
understanding of that is that the-- so they were interned but
when they were interned there was a man, Mr. [Cavianni] who-- or
[Cavianni] or—anyway, he helped watch over olive farms.
Possessions were taken care of by this man, Mr. Smith, who own
the Smith Chevrolet. And although they might not have gotten
revenue from their farms, they didn't lose their farms. I don't
know any-- I mean, I know some people who didn't return. And
when they got back, they ended up selling their farms because my
father bought one of those sold farms. But, you know, I recently
read a book by New York Times, I think, author published in this
late-- in the 2000 teens that said that, you know, there were
120,000 Japanese that were emigrated from the West Coast. OK. Or
not emigrated, relocated from the West Coast.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: And he said only about 60,000 came back.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh, is that right?
>> Diane Honda: So if that's the case, then that's why a lot of
people didn't come back. But they did have the ability to sell
their property because I know my dad bought one of those farms->> Carlene Tinker: Right, right
>> Diane Honda: -- that my brother still currently farms.
>> Carlene Tinker: Do you have any brothers or sisters?
>> Diane Honda: Yes, my brother Dennis. And he definitely still
farms. He-- My brother Dennis is six years older than me. So he
was born right like around 1947 or something like that. And he
went to, I guess I'll say this forever. He went to Berkeley, UC
Berkeley during a very tumultuous time. But a very unawareness
time of how important Japanese-American history is. So although
he set out to be an architect, he actually was very interested
in pursuing kind of traditional industries that Japanese were
in. So he started, after he became an architect and was an
architect in San Francisco for a while, he decided to become a
fisherman.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh.
>> Diane Honda: So he fished in the bay area. But he actually
felt like there was such a strong Italian and other ethnic
groups that kind of had a lock on it that he felt like he didn't
have any advantage in that. So he asked my dad if he could come
home and be a farmer. And my father who didn't have the choice
to be a farmer, my father wanted to be an accountant. But he was
in his early 20s when the war happened and, you know, was of
course interned, didn't have the opportunity really to go to
college and didn't-- and actually wanted to join the army right
as World War II started but wasn't allowed to and was actually,
he tells us-- told us a lot what's classified as an enemy alien.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: And that really stuck with him and he was very
angry. So even though he had brothers that were younger that
served in United States army, he did not. And so that also
didn't give him the advantage of having the GI Bill to come
home. And besides that, he was already married by the time the
end of the war came in. And he had, you know, he didn't-- had my
brother Dennis. So it was time to start the farm.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right. So there are only two of you?
>> Diane Honda: Yes.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: Now, getting back to-- let me back track a
little bit to the Yamato Colony and its early inception. Did the
people who lived in this community pool their money? Did they
share the money and share the revenue? To what extent was the
community aspect fostered?
>> Diane Honda: Well, one of the things about the Cortez
community is they also had another parcel that was allotted to
the Cortez Growers Association and this growers association did.
Yes, they pooled everything so they could market their things
together. And that Cortez Growers Association to this day still
exists. And it still-- it has that same focus as they did
before. My brother, who then took over the farm, is part of that
association. And they sell almonds, for example, and instead of
being a single farmer selling to Blue Diamond they sell as that
Cortez Growers Association.
>> Carlene Tinker: Is that right?
>> Diane Honda: Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: Now, is the community now still religiousbased? Would you say they've gotten away from that?
>> Diane Honda: Well, yeah, they've definitely-- There are-Well, first of all, the community is integrated so that it's not
all Japanese and some of the Japanese farms particularly, I want
to say, in the '80s and '90s when the Nisei were retiring sold
their property predominantly to Caucasian people.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh, OK.
>> Diane Honda: So it's-- And those Caucasian people, many of
them belonged to that Cortez Growers Association. But-- And
because of that, their need for an ethnic church was not the
same. I mean, my feelings about an ethnic church is, at the
beginning, Reverend Sab Masada told me that when he grew up in
Bowles that the-- after the war, they went to a Caucasian church
and they weren't welcomed.
>> Carlene Tinker: I see.
>> Diane Honda: They said go back to your own church. So the
first church was needed because nobody wanted, I mean, they
wanted them to be on their own. And the Niseis, it was needed
because I think it gave them a place to heal or at least to be
together after World War II.
>> Carlene Tinker: Well, right.
>> Diane Honda: Then as the third generation came along, the
need to stay in an ethnic-based church wasn't as great.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right, right.
>> Diane Honda: And, although, I still attend an ethnic-based
church myself, I don't think that's-- in fact, I know that's
not-- I mean there's a lot of my friends that do not.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: So->> Carlene Tinker: Yeah. I can see your logic there and-- but at
first when these people were first coming to the United States,
they needed some people to help them, OK. So forming that group,
Abiko was very--forethoughtful in doing that. And as I
understand, he did not actually come to the valley. He just
stayed in San Francisco.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. See, that's why I'm saying I don't know
that they ever met him just, you know, people that helped him or
worked for him or did something of that sort. Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right. I think I told you recently that I
didn't-- when I was doing my little research on Yamato colonies,
I found one in Fred-- in Florida.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Carlene Tinker: And I think the name Yamato means Japan or
was that the ancient name for Japan?
>> Diane Honda: I don't know.
>> Carlene Tinker: But anyway, it’s coincidental but they were- that particular colony was started by a railroad man and his
name was Flagler, and he wanted to develop the land along his
railroad. And so the first people who bit on buying the land
happened to be a Japanese man who had studied in the East Coast
University. So totally coincidental but->> Diane Honda: Yes.
>> Carlene Tinker: -- what a find I thought, oh gosh, I have to
ask Diane about this. OK. So anyway, your parent-- your
grandparents were of the Issei generation?
>> Diane Honda: Right.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK. And they came, I imagined, seeking a
better life, would that be true or am I->> Diane Honda: Yeah. I’m certain that they were seeking a
better life, that they weren't the eldest in the families that-because I actually don't really know a lot about my grandfather
Shamley [assumed spelling], whether he was the eldest, how many
were in that family. But I do know that, you know he-- I'm sure
he came. And I also know that he was very, somehow, became very
Christian and very God-fearing and, you know, my parents will
say, "Oh yes, grandpa's favorite hymn was Rock of Ages" and, you
know, they-- you know, it struck with them, so->> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: And I'm actually very proud of that Christian
history.
>> Carlene Tinker: Your mother-- your grandmother rather, she
came from Kumamoto?
>> Diane Honda: Yes. My mother's parents came from Kumamoto. So
my grandfather-- they came under very different circumstances.
My grandfather arrived on-- after or a day after the San
Francisco earthquake.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh, OK.
>> Diane Honda: So his ship could see the sea burning. So it
moved on to Seattle and-- But eventually he did move his way
back to San Francisco. I guess he wanted to be in that San
Francisco but they unboarded in Seattle. And he didn't have a
wife. He came with his-- he came with a son but not a wife. He
came with a son who was a grown son like 20 years old and
himself. And because I've seen pictures and I said, "Who is
this?" and they said, "Oh, that's uncle Goto [assumed
spelling]." Whatever happened to him, we don't know. And we
don't know whatever happened to him because my grandmother then
was a picture bride and she came and she was 19 years younger
than him.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK. So she was about 20 years younger
something [inaudible].
>> Diane Honda: Yeah, yeah. And, you know, she had reasonably
tragic story about being married and then the husband didn't
like her so he kicked her out and she had to leave a son behind
and-- So there-- Yeah, there was a lot of heartbreak. So, her
leaving to come to America was out of that. So it was a very
different story.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: That they came from the Kumamoto.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right. So your grandfather was at the Yamato
Colony at this point when he sent for her? Is that->> Diane Honda: No, no, no. This is my mother side.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: So they weren't in the part of the Yamato Colony
at all.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh, OK.
>> Diane Honda: My mother side was not. My grandfather became a
laborer in the San Francisco, Santa Rosa area.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. And eventually had a chicken farm but he,
mostly, when he was young and the family was young. Well, he
probably wasn't that young, he was probably in his 40s. But when
the family was young, he worked in apple orchards as a laborer.
>> Carlene Tinker: Got it, OK.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: Now, I'm getting this right now. OK, your
parents, your parents, what was your-- They would be the Nisei?
>> Diane Honda: Right.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK, second generation but first born here in
United States.
>> Diane Honda: Right.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK. On your dad side, he was in the Yamato
Colony.
>> Diane Honda: He was part of the Yamato Colony.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK. All right. So I got that straight. What
was your father's full name?
>> Diane Honda: Yukihiro Yotsuya and, yeah, he was named by this
guy named Mr. Yamaguchi who was-- when I met him was a hundred
years old. And that's just why I remember my dad saying, "This
is the guy that marry-- that named me." But he was born in
Freedom, as I said before and came. And when they were two years
old, for some reason, when he was two years old, the grandfather
was able to take the whole family back to Japan to see the
grandmother's mother.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: Which I felt is a pretty amazing thing to be
able to do. I don't know how we got the money or-- but they
stayed long enough to have a son there. But since the son was so
young, they decided to leave him in Japan and come back. And so,
he was probably born in the 1920s and wasn't able to come to the
United States until the 1950s, because, you know, the Exclusion
Act came in and->> Carlene Tinker: Right.
>> Diane Honda: And I get the Exclusion Act must have excluded
family members.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right.
>> Diane Honda: He fought for Japan. He fought in the army for
Japan. And, you know, when he-- he did eventually come to the
United States and live in the United States but he-- Then after
about 20-- 25 years in the United States went back to Japan.
>> Carlene Tinker: I'll be darned.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: I'll be darned.
>> Diane Honda: So->> Carlene Tinker: So your dad was born when-- what was his
birthday?
>> Diane Honda: July 23rd, 1917.
>> Carlene Tinker: 1917, OK. So, then your mother-- OK. Where
did she come from?
>> Diane Honda: My mother was born in Santa Rosa.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: So-- And she was the third child but she is the
oldest. She was the only that survived past young childhood. I
mean, my mother will tell stories about how my grandmother would
be working in the field and then she would have the baby come in
and have the baby and then she would serve lunch for the field
workers.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh my god.
>> Diane Honda: So, I'm not sure if that's legend or that's
true. But that's the story of how hard a worker. And that's why
babies didn't survive too because, you know, they had a really
hard life.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: Working for apple growers and crushing apples.
And I guess it was dangerous too because the apple crushing
machines and->> Carlene Tinker: OK. What was your mother's maiden name?
>> Diane Honda: Her maiden name was Murakami.
>> Carlene Tinker: Murakami.
>> Diane Honda: So she-- her-- yeah. Her name was Sadame
Murakami and she gave herself the name Mae as she started
school.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK. OK. So when was she born? Your->> Diane Honda: She was born in October 15th, 1919.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK. OK. Now, when the war broke out, let's
say, how many children did they have?
>> Diane Honda: So they had four children. So my aunt Fuji who
became a fashion designer in Los Angeles, which she has herself
a very interesting story. My uncle James Murakami who was the
national JACL president during the rigorous time, which was
quite a tumultuous time actually->> Carlene Tinker: Oh yeah.
>> Diane Honda: -- in the JACL history. And then my uncle George
Murakami who is an architect.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK. So, are any of those children alive?
>> Diane Honda: No, none of them.
>> Carlene Tinker: All of them have passed.
>> Diane Honda: All of them have passed.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK. Now-- OK. When the war broke out,
February, I mean, December 7th, 1941 which is coming-- the
celebration is coming up, where were your parents at the time?
>> Diane Honda: So my mother-- They had both graduated high
school already. And I'm not exactly-- neither one of them have
told me stories about I remember when this happened. Almost all
the stories that I've read had to do with I've read them. But I
do know my mother would say things to me like, you know, it
wasn't that bad, we didn't experience that but then they did go
to camp. And then I found letters after she passed away, from
her friends that were Caucasian outside of camp, that would say
things like, you know, my friends told me I shouldn't write to
you because you're, you know, in a camp. And, you know, that you
are the enemy but I never thought of you as the enemy. And so
then I realized that a lot of it was just probably blocked out.
And again, I had already relate my father's story about how his
anger. I think that's an anger that lived with him his whole
life, that the United States army wouldn't take him. So, had he
gone in before he would have been taken to->> Carlene Tinker: Yeah, he would have been able to participate.
>> Diane Honda: Yes, right.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah, yeah.
>> Diane Honda: But since he volunteered in that 1942 time, he
wasn't able. And then to add injury on that, his family and he
were also put in relocation camp. I mean not relocation, the
assembly center in Merced, so the Merced County Fairgrounds
Assembly Center. And they were-- both of the families were put
into the Amache camp, which is where they met.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh, is that-- oh, I was going to say did-- so
your mother was in Santa Rosa at the time->> Diane Honda: Right.
>> Carlene Tinker: -- when the war broke out, I mean the
Executive Order 9066 and we had to be evacuated. OK. So she came
to the Merced->> Diane Honda: Right. Her family did.
>> Carlene Tinker: -- Assembly Center and your dad was there but
they didn't meet there?
>> Diane Honda: No. They apparently met at the carpool where the
bathrooms are actually at the Amache camp. And so->> Carlene Tinker: Well, coincidentally, I'm the interviewer and
my name-- by the way, I didn't introduce myself. I just thought
of that. My family went to Amache as well. So I know what you're
talking about, the carpool area and so forth. So how old were
your parents at that time when they were in Camp Amache?
>> Diane Honda: Well, they must have been about 20, in the early
20s at this point.
>> Carlene Tinker: Mm-hmm, OK.
>> Diane Honda: You know, it hit them in a time where, you know,
they normally would have been in junior college or progressing
their life after high school. And I think it was a kind of
pretty crucial time of their lives.
>> Carlene Tinker: Definitely.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. And so, my mother worked as a dispatcher
at camp and my father drove a truck from out of camp->> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: -- whenever delivering vegetables or whatever
they did.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah. So, did they-- do you know if they met
right away when we got evacuated?
>> Diane Honda: I think they met pretty close right away because
my father would-- said-- always told the story that he saw my
mother and he said, "Oh, that is the girl I'm going to marry."
And then my mother was, actually, had a boyfriend that was in
the army. So-- or was going to go to the army or something to
do. So, I mean, if-- actually used that story and you think
about what you know, that actually wasn't at the beginning
because those boys weren't allowed to go to the army right away.
They->> Carlene Tinker: No. It was later or->> Diane Honda: Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: -- probably '43, '44-- probably closer to
'44.
>> Diane Honda: You know what, I think that story is not clear
thinking because she then with her brother James, went to
Pennsylvania and took advantage of the Quakers who allowed
people to come out of camp to either go to school or work. And
so, I would think that she did that by '43 or '44. So I don't
know that her story was accurate.
>> Carlene Tinker: Now, that's an interesting aside. Let's take
a second and talk about what she did in Pennsylvania. What-- did
she go to school at that point?
>> Diane Honda: OK. So, my uncle, the one who became the JACL
president, he went to high school. He finished high school
outside of camp. And then she worked in an office and-- as a
house girl. They were both house boy and girl for a family in
Pennsylvania.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK. OK. And then, how long did they stay
there before they came back to California?
>> Diane Honda: They stayed there until the end of the war.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: Because they didn't come back to camp ever.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK. OK.
>> Diane Honda: They came back to San Francisco.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK. And also I may interject here, during
World War II, when World War II was declared, this Executive
Order 9066 was signed by Franklin Delano Roosevelt, our
president. And that declared the West Coast as a military zone.
And that's why we got sent--They said, OK, by military a
necessity, never mentioning Japanese, but intending Japanese
that we had to be moved from the West Coast because we were a
threat, a potential threat. And so, just like Diane here and
myself, we were moved to assembly centers. She went to Merced. I
went to Santa Anita.
>> Diane Honda: Well, my parents did.
>> Carlene Tinker: Your parents did.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: And-- I'm sorry. And then I got sent to
Amache, which is one of the 10 relocation camps and that's in
South Eastern Colorado. And her parents met in Amache, same camp
that I just referred to. So, I just wanted to clarify that. I
didn't specify that earlier. Now, your dad was very bitter I
think from what you're saying. OK. Now, do you know anything
about the loyalty questions number 27 and 28?
>> Diane Honda: Yes, yes.
>> Carlene Tinker: Do you remember what they are?
>> Diane Honda: One was, are you loyal to the emperor of Japan
or do you foreswear loyalty? And then the second one was about,
would you be willing to serve in the army with-- or in the
military to-- against the Japanese, which is kind of an odd
question for all but boys in their 20s I think, yes.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right.
>> Diane Honda:
But.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah, especially, when they were forbidden at
the beginning of the war.
>> Diane Honda: Right, right.
>> Carlene Tinker: To be->> Diane Honda: Right.
>> Carlene Tinker: -- and that's-- and to serve->> Diane Honda: Which I think angered my father more but it
didn't anger him to say no. He did answer yes to all the
questions. And my parents, my parent-- my-- all my relatives
answered yes to all those questions.
>> Carlene Tinker: Is that right?
>> Diane Honda: Yes.
>> Carlene Tinker: Is that right? Yeah, I-- you know, come to
think of it. I don't know what my parents, you know. We never
talked about it and, unfortunately, both of them are deceased,
you know. So I haven't a chance to->> Diane Honda: Yeah. We talked about it because there our
neighboring father-- neighboring farmer. Mr. Kubo, he had
answered no, no. And so, she never explained to me really what
that was about. But as a child, I kind of felt like->> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: -- maybe that isn't a good thing. But, I mean,
the farmer was always-- Mr. Kubo was always very nice to me and
always spent time after I get off the bus telling me stories and
talking to me as he was irrigating his land. And so, I never
really understood the animosity of that.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah. Now, so your mom and dad, I mean, your
mom didn't move to the Valley. She moved to Santa Rosa when she
came back, right?
>> Diane Honda: Mm-hmm.
>> Carlene Tinker: She and her brother. And then your dad did
come back to->> Diane Honda: Yes,
>> Carlene Tinker: -- the Yamato Colony and->> Diane Honda: Right.
>> Carlene Tinker: -- and Cortez.
>> Diane Honda: Yes.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: And he purchased his own farm which was next
door to his father's farm.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: And then he asked to marry my mother. And so, my
mother said OK.
>> Carlene Tinker: How did he do that? Did he write to her for a
while?
>> Diane Honda: No, he would go to visit her in Santa Rosa and
developed-- Well, he had friends because, you know, from camp
that went to-- and that had gone back to Santa Rosa too. And so- and we, as children, we go visit those friends on our way to
Santa Rosa.
>> Carlen Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: And we're always told that that's where he
stayed and he would visit. And, you know, this is-- or in the
1940s. So, my grandfather determined that this was a nice enough
boy, so she should just marry him. His mother-- his-- her
younger sister had married a young man that lived in Los
Angeles.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: And so, my mother did told me that she felt like
she's-- it's time that she should be married, so.
>> Carlene Tinker: So, how old were they when they got married?
>> Diane Honda: I think->> Carlene Tinker: What year was that?
>> Diane Honda: OK. That's a challenging question. OK. She must
have gotten married in 194-- OK, '54, '48. They must have got
married 1947.
>> Carlene Tinker: Forty seven to->> Diane Honda: So, that would make my dad near 30 and my mom
28.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh, 20?
>> Diane Honda: Twenty-eight.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh, 28.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK, OK.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah. So-- and then they had-- your brother,
when did he get born?
>> Diane Honda: He was born in '48, the next year.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh, the next year.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: And then when is your birthday?
>> Diane Honda: In 1954.
>> Carlene Tinker: Nineteen fifty four.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: And at that point, the Exclusion Act was
rescinded and then you're-- one of the relative, somebody, the
former son-- first son was able to come over.
>> Diane Honda: Came back. I think in 1951 was the McCarran Act?
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: And that's when the Issei could become citizens
and the Exclusion Act was lifted and so my uncle came back and I
was there. I would-- I don't remember that. Actually, what
happened in 1954, the year I was born, is my father-- my
father's mother died before the war. So she didn't go to camp.
He was a teenager when she passed. Complications of diabetes, I
don't know. I really don't know how she-- but she died pretty
young. And her youngest child was only probably seven or eight
years old.
>> Carlene Tinker: Wow.
>> Diane Honda: And then her-- my grandfather died the year I
was born. And they said that my uncle Eiji came back to see him.
And he had diabetes, I know. And so this-- the only reason I
know about that story too is my uncle Asaji who is my father's,
one of the younger brothers, and my auntie Fuji. My auntie Fuji
was carrying me and she was from LA and a fashion designer.
She's wearing very probably high stilettos at the funeral. And
she was carrying me and I guess stumbled and almost fell into
the grave but my uncle grabbed this-- grabbed her and pushed her
off to the ground to the side. So the story, for me, is
obviously I was a baby, was that my uncle Asaji saved my life
and my auntie Fuji risked my life. So it's a funny story.
>> Carlene Tinker: That's a cute story.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah, but that's also how I know that my
grandfather passed away at that time.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah. So, you basically grew up in Cortez. Is
that correct?
>> Diane Honda: Yes, I did.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: I grew up in Cortez.
>> Carlene Tinker: So what was life like for you, did you help
in the fields? Did you do any of that kind of stuff or were you
not a-- did you just stay at home and help mom or what was life
like then?
>> Diane Honda: You know, I think life there was pretty
sheltered and pretty cool. First of all, we grew up, you know,
when Hillary Clinton talks about it takes a village, you know.
And when I look back, it really was a village of people because
those Yamato people that had come back, the farmers that-- I
told you already about Mr. Kubo who would tell me stories. There
was a Mr. Sugiura who would just come by and take me for rides
on his little moped thing that-- around the farms. And so my mom
worked at a fabric store. She really only worked there four days
a week for a probably about five hours a day but, you know,
Monday, Tuesday, and then when-- Thursday, Friday but we felt
like she worked all the time. You know, when you think about,
it's not all the time. But-- anyway, so she-- because she
worked, you know, I would come home from school and I would help
like-- I called it pick up sticks but I don't know. It was
somehow picking up these twigs that are pruned and then they
burn them or they do something with them. I mean, I did stuff
but I don't know what they were for. So a lot-- at lot of times
they would throw me on the tractor. Really literally I was about
six or seven and throw me on the tractor and they just say just
steer it. And then-- and it would go real slow and then by the
time they finished whatever row, they would jump back on and
they would stop it for me. So, you know, it doesn't seem very
safe. But anyway->> Carlene Tinker: And you were only six years old?
>> Diane Honda: Yeah, I was only six years old and-- But, you
know, my mom-- dad I remember-- I remember this one very vividly
because he put me on the tractor and he said drive it to your
uncle's farm which was-- I was probably old, I was like eight.
But I really, you know, I had to-- and I was driving to the
farm. So I didn't drive on any roads. So I was driving through
the farms and I kind of knew how to get there. But the thing
was, is once I got there, I don't really know how to stop the
tractor. And so, I thought, hmm, what should I do? Should I just
keep driving around or should I and I-- and so I saw this tree
and I thought, "Well, if I hit that tree, I wonder if it'll just
stop." You know, and it was a pretty big tree and it did. And I
was going really slow so it did. And then my father got there he
goes, "What are you doing? Just turn off the key." Well, I
didn't even know where the key was. And then to stop it, you
know, there was this bar on the left side that I don't even know
what. I don't think it was a brake but it did slow it down. I
would have to actually literally get off the seat and then stand
with two feet on it to even get it to kind of close to stopping.
>> Carlene Tinker: Wow.
>> Diane Honda: So, you know, it is amazing that I didn't die or
something.
>> Carlene Tinker: Well, what was the crop that your dad was
growing at that point?
>> Diane Honda: He grew peaches and walnuts->> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: -- as I grew up and then he eventually pulled
out the peaches and put almonds in that.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah, that became the cash crop.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah, yeah. And so for the peaches I helped,
they put up props, you know, when the-- it's too much. So I
would help drive so that they put-- my brother and my cousin
would put the props out. I would help-- oh, I would help in the
walnuts by picking up the ones that didn't make it into the
rows. I had to pick it up and throw them into the rows. My
brother will tell you if he ever sees is that I never did hard
labor. I mean, you know, like he was doing props and he was, you
know, raking and stuff but my job was to, you know, obviously
you can tell and to pick up things, to throw sticks in places
and-- But, I mean, it was-- oh, and then to sort peaches in the
summer time.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right. Oh, sure.
>> Diane Honda: So->> Carlene Tinker: Now did you go to school in Cortez or where
was school?
>> Diane Honda: OK. So there were two schools. One was called
this Vincent School, just two of them, schoolhouse. So first,
second, and third grade I went to Vincent School.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: And there were grades one through four in the
one class and then five through eight in the other class. And it
was, you know, it was a small country school and then my parents
felt like they wanted me to go to a big school where they had
like one grade per class. And that was Ballico which was just-it was kind of adjacent. It was a little bit further. For
Vincent, I had to walk, I mean, I had to ride a bike to school.
So I was, again, six years old riding this bike to school. And
my cousins were there but they were all seven and eighth
graders. And so I was the only one in my age group and I just
remember pedaling, being really far behind and they were way in
front of me. But then I always felt like I had a smaller bike.
But I also wasn't like super athletic. So maybe if I was this
super athletic person, I would just try and go really fast and
catch up with them but, anyway. And then once they graduated
also I think my parents wanted me somewhere else. And so the
school bus for Ballico, for some reason, came to the end of my
road. So I could just walk to the end of the road, get on the
school bus and go. And also for me, it was a change because
Ballico had a music program. So I could play in the band and,
you know, and that became an important, actually, to me because
I was musically oriented. So->> Carlene Tinker: Right, right. Where did you go to high
school?
>> Diane Honda: So we went to Livingston High School.
>> Carlene Tinker: Livingston.
>> Diane Honda: And technically, where my brother lives and
where my father's farm was, was in the Turlock High School
District. But Livingston High School had more Japanese-Americans
in it, a lot. I mean, like my class was probably only about 200
kid-- no, I-- less, 150 kids and there were about 20 of us that
were Japanese-Americans.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: So that's why in many ways I felt like I kind of
had an ideal-- because I was very sheltered and I kind of-- I
think I grew up with too much self-confidence since that. I
thought that Japanese kids were the smartest. And I thought we
were, you know, did the best in various things and, you know,
and so I just thought that's the group I belonged to.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: Well, just the opposite, I was always like
one or two of a huge class and so I had a different
interpretation. So in Cortez, how many people lived in Cortez at
that time? And how many live there now?
>> Diane Honda: That's a very good question. I mean, if you
figure in my class alone in Cortez because that 20 combines
Livingston and Cortez. There were eight of-- one to five. Yeah,
there were eight of us that were just my age in Cortez. So, you
know, and they all had brothers and sisters and the Cortez area
was really thriving at that time. So I'm going to guess a couple
hundred people, I mean people, maybe 30 families, or something
of that sort.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah. OK. So now how many you think are
there?
>> Diane Honda: Well, it all depends if you consider just
Japanese-Americans. Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: Everybody, everybody.
>> Diane Honda: Mm-hmm, I'm not really sure.
>> Carlene Tinker: Is it larger?
>> Diane Honda: No, it's not larger because what happened is
like, for example, my brother, he farms what was my uncle's
ranch and his ranch. And then, you know, so people are not where
there was one family per ranch, that one family will have two or
three of those ranches.
>> Carlene Tinker: I see. I see.
>> Diane Honda: So there has a->> Carlene Tinker: And then he also lives in Livingston, right?
>> Diane Honda: No. My brother lives on my father's farm.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh he does. OK.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah, yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: So-- But-- and he is still involved to the
Cortez, of course. And then some of the people there in Cortez
have bought three or four or five farms.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: So->> Carlene Tinker: So, yeah, I could see->> Diane Honda: Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: -- the ratio of people to the number of
farms.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah, yeah, a nice place.
>> Carlene Tinker: I see. Getting back to this feeling that you
were kind of superior, that's kind of-- that's fascinating. That
was sort of insulating and also->> Diane Honda: Yes.
>> Carlene Tinker: -- as far as the reaction of other people to
you, you didn't really feel any prejudice.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: I'm assuming.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. Right. The only->> Carlene Tinker: Is that true?
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. The only time I remember, our neighbor's
uncle would come from San Francisco and he would take us to the
local pool. And when we went to the local pool which was in
Turlock, I remember we were all-- and there were three-- there
were probably seven or eight of us there. But I remember a boy,
you know, doing the chin chin China man and, you know, doing his
eyes and stuff. And I just thought, why is-- I mean I knew it
felt bad. It made me feel bad but I didn't go to school with a
majority white population. In fact, the-- where I went to school
with a lot of those kids, their parents worked for our parents.
Or they were, you know, they were not necessarily-- they were-if they were farmers, they weren't-- they were equal
economically. Whereas in Turlock that was-- I mean it is still a
city. I mean, still a kind, you know, a town but I think that
there were people that were maybe sons of dentists or doctors
or, you know, other kinds of occupations that maybe perhaps felt
that they were superior to the farmers.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK, OK.
>> Diane Honda: So that could be an economic superiority as
well.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right.
>> Diane Honda: But-- yeah. And that was the only time is when-you're right, when I left my little insulated area. And by the
time I got to high school, like I remember going to honor bands
because I play Clarinet but at the same time too, at that point
in time, you hold your own place. You know, I am the first
clarinet or whatever, right?
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah, yeah.
>> Diane Honda: And you interact with everybody in that economy
so to speak.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right, right.
>> Diane Honda: So->> Carlene Tinker: Yeah. I'm thinking right away when you talked
about your own kind athletes, you know, black American->> Diane Honda: That's right.
>> Carlene Tinker: African-Americans maybe when they're on a
team with other blacks, OK. They feel very comfortable but then
if they're out in a society where they have to compete in other
ways, maybe it's not as comfortable and they experience a lot
more racism and so forth. So anyway, getting back to Cortez,
when did you->> Diane Honda: Yeah, OK. Yeah, that's fine though.
>> Carlene Tinker: All right. OK. We were asking you about your- leaving Cortez and you went to school. You went to college,
OK. Where did you go to school?
>> Diane Honda: I went to UCLA.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK. Why did you go there instead of Berkeley?
I remember your brother went to Berkeley.
>> Diane Honda: My brother went to Berkeley. My uncles went to
Berkeley. Everybody went to Berkeley. I do have one cousin that
went to UCLA for a couple of years and then went to Berkeley.
So-- But, you know my aunt had lived in Los Angeles. I felt like
I liked the weather there. I felt-- I don't know, I just felt
like I'd like the atmosphere there and I am really-- that was a
good choice.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: It was a good choice in one way in that-- it was
a good choice in that LA was a place I liked being but as you
know that I grew up in a very small insulated place. And when I
went to UCLA, it was very, very large. And many times thought to
myself, why did I come to this place to be a little fish in this
huge pond and where could I make a difference? And my education,
at the time I didn't realize it but when I think back to it was
really woefully underdone compared to. So my good friend went to
a school, suburban school in San Diego. And then I went to
Livingston High School and although, you know, it wasn't that it
was inferior but, you know, even the things we read were not
anywhere close to what the other kids had already been exposed
to. So then when they're in college and they're analyzing
whatever, I was a sociology major, analyzing whatever they read,
they had already read a lot of things that I hardly even knew,
so-- And I remember being in discussion groups and as you can
tell, I talk a lot. And people are saying, well, you don't talk
because you're holding back and don't want to share what your
knowledge is, you know, like I was doing something bad. But I
literally was not talking because I had nothing to say.
>> Carlene Tinker: All right.
>> Diane Honda: Because I had never been around people that
analyzed and talked in that manner because that's not the way
the education I had in Livingston was like.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right. So that was a big, big step for you.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. It was a big step for me although I will
say my predecessors like other people from Livingston, they went
to Harvard and Yale and Stanford and all kinds of places. So, I
mean, it's not like, you know, I was the-- you know, it wasn't
that great. But anyway, I'm just saying that it was really quite
a shock and->> Carlene Tinker: Right.
>> Diane Honda: When I think back, maybe had I gone to a junior
college first and then gone on to UCLA. I mean, I was successful
there. I finished in four years and I got a teaching grant which
also-- You know, it wasn't like I fell out or anything of that
sort. But it was just very different. But again, at UCLA, I was
insulated with a huge Sansei population.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh, is that right?
>> Diane Honda: Yes.
>> Carlene Tinker: How was that, Diane?
>> Diane Honda: Well, there was-- well, first of all, there is-I don't know what it's called. It's a different acronym for UCLA
with the University of Caucasians Lost amongst Asians. So there
were a lot of Asian people at UCLA. And there was a huge-- well,
I thought it was. There was a considerable Japanese-American
Sansei population--
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh, OK.
>> Diane Honda: To the point where, and this kind of sounds bad
now. But in Powell Library, which was their undergrad library,
there was a room they called it the Yellow Room. And that's
where all the Jap-- specifically Japanese-Americans not Asian.
Japanese-Americans would go to study. We had our own bowling
league. We had our own bible studies. We had our own, you know,
that were just predominantly Japanese-American Sanseis.
>> Carlene Tinker: I'll be darned. Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: So again, I was kind of insulated in that way.
>> Carlene Tinker: Well, how did you find this group? Did you
have-- how did you-- did you have friends at UCLA so that they
introduced you to these groups or did you just sort of wander in
to this Yellow Room or?
>> Diane Honda: That's a good question.
>> Carlene Tinker: How did that happen?
>> Diane Honda: I-- That's a good question. I did not have
friends that went to UCLA. I went to UCLA really on my own.
There was one Jewish gal from Livingston that was there but I
really didn't associate much with her. She was older. I think-OK. So I became friends with this gal, Janet [Sakai] in-- from
Gilroy area. In fact, she lived in a house that was the Japanese
exhibit hall for the 1930 World Fair, something like that.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh my gosh.
>> Diane Honda: And that was her house. And that still exist
there in Gilroy and-- But she was very active in YBA and so she
had a lot of friends in that YBA and then from that grew other.
I mean, there were actually Japanese-American sorority and
fraternities also. But it was during the '70s and that was kind
of like not cool to be like-- at least in my mind, cool to be
part of a fraternity and sorority, you know. My mother's vision
of me going to college is wearing dresses and, you know, not
high heel shoes but, you know, fancy shoes. But my vision was
wearing corduroy pants and t-shirts and a corduroy jacket or
some sort of, you know, very-- And my brother had gone to
Berkeley and when my brother was at Berkeley you know, he really
led the way for the formation of Asian-American classes. And so,
by the time I got there, the unrest on campuses was done. It was
197- fall of '72. And so, those classes were established. So I
could take the history of Japanese-American internment or the
history of, you know, the Filipinos or any. There was a-- not
thriving but beginning to thrive Japanese-American.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: I mean-- excuse me, Asian-American studies
program.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right.
>> Diane Honda: So, I am sure I met people through those->> Carlene Tinker: Right.
>> Diane Honda: -- venues as well. And maybe didn't consciously
seek out but really gravitated for whatever reason. And I don't
feel like I gravitated to that community because I was rejected
by another. You know, I just felt-- I guess I just gravitated to
that community because when you go back into my history and my
daughter will say well, how many people that were not of your
ethnicity were you friends with in college? Not a lot. Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: Well, you mentioned YBA. What was-- what's
that stand for?
>> Diane Honda: The Young Buddhist Association.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: It was a->> Carlene Tinker: OK, OK.
>> Diane Honda: -- social. I mean, it was part of the Buddhist
church but it was also a social group. Also, I had gone to
camps, Japanese-American Christian camps as well. So I knew some
people actually from those places.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK. OK. So, when you went to UCLA, it doesn't
sound like you had any problems dealing with non-Japanese
people. And you-- obviously, you have them in your classes.
>> Diane Honda: Yes, yes.
>> Carlene Tinker: And so, you didn't have any feelings of
rejection or->> Diane Honda: No.
>> Carlene Tinker: -- people or men.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: So, it was--
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. And even when I say that so [inaudible], I
mean, I should have been really felt-- I was very humbled in
those classes where I didn't feel like I was prepared. But I
didn't feel bad or I didn't feel like I was less then. Of
course, I don't know if that was humbled means. But anyway, I
felt-- I didn't feel like I didn't belong. How is that? I didn't
feel like I didn't belong.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right. OK. Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: Because I felt like well, they accepted me, so->> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: I must belong here. And I saw a lot of people
from the peripheral but I didn't expect to be part of their-you know, UCLA is such a big place. I remember my roommate who
was Japanese-American from Gardena. So, that's another place
where I'd meet a lot of people. We would go before our music
class and see Mark Harmon who is a movie star now and/or a TV
star now. And he would be-- he was the UCLA quarterback. And he
would be really be living and telling his friends about the game
and we would watch him and he was so good looking, you know. We
just sat and watched him. He was also older. I mean he was-- now
that you think back about three years older but I mean, you
know, but seemed older. So when I watched them, I didn't think,
gosh, I wish I was part of that social set. I just watched him
enjoying the fact that he goes to my school and-- But I didn't
feel like I couldn't belong. I just felt comfortable. I think
that's actually-- I felt comfortable with the social set I was
in.
>> Carlene Tinker: Well, that's-- that's fine. Yeah. You
answered my question. Now, when did you actually move back to
the valley and how did you happen to come back? Why did you-did you go back to Cortez or did you come to Fresno?
>> Diane Honda: So, one thing when I was an undergraduate at
UCLA, I was getting my laundry out of my dryer and a car pulled
up. It was a subterranean garage and a man with a ski mask came
out with a knife and, you know, tried to pull me into the car
and-- But luckily I was born with really loud voice. And I just
start screaming. I just-- I remember cowering and just screaming
and screaming and screaming. And then he went away. And that
experience actually made me want to-- after I graduated from
UCLA to go back to Turlock for a little while.
>> Carlene Tinker: Wow.
>> Diane Honda: So, I did get my teaching credential at UCLA so
that when I went back to Turlock I could-- or to live with my
parents in Cortez-- I could get a job pretty easily because the
people coming out of schools were graduating from [Stanislaus]
State or, you know, I mean, I was a curiosity. Well, she
graduated from UCLA. And then there was this gal, Madeline
Hunter, who was real big in education at the time and she was a
UCLA professor. And although she was never my UCLA professor, it
opened the door. So, I got a job in Modesto at a junior high
school there. And I moved back home for three years.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: And then, after three years of living at home,
my father, I think got tired of me or something. He said, I
think you need to go back to LA and start your life. So, I mean,
when I think back now that I have children-- a child that's
older than that, you know, when you graduate at 21 or 2, you are
pretty young and I did. It was kind of scary what had happened
to me. So I did kind of want to just go back to my little cocoon
for a little while. And then my dad at the age of 25, I guess, I
was at that point says, you know, go away again. He's not really
go away. So, I went back to LA and started teaching in Los
Angeles.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK. And then, is that when you married and
found your husband?
>> Diane Honda: Yes. I met my husband. He was-- he had also come
to Los Angeles. He came from by way of Monterey to Fresno State
as his college of choice and then to LA where he had a jazz
band. But he-- and eventually, he what-- he wanted to get his
master's degree so he could teach college at USC.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: So, I met him when he was substitute teaching.
And so-- So I guess it's good thing he sent me off because I met
him fairly quickly after I got sent off. And then, and we
established a life there for probably about 12 years or so
before we came to Fresno. And coming to Fresno, going back to
the valley really did have to do with wanting to be closer to my
parents. I had a child by that point. And I felt like we both
did not grow up in LA and we have this feeling that bringing up
a child in LA meant that that child was going to have to be
street smart very early. And we wanted her to be a little bit
not that way because we weren't that way. And so-- and our
friend of Larry's that he went to college with here said, you
know, I have a great position. Buchanan High School is just
opening up. So that junior high director is moving to the high
school, come interview at Alta Sierra. And, you know, we had
taught in Los Angeles. And in Los Angeles, you know, the schools
really ran on bare minimums, I mean, bare minimums. And when I
came here to Fresno, he accepted the job at Alta Sierra and then
I went to Bullard and my-- and where I met you. And-- but my
first day at Bullard or actually maybe school hadn't even
started yet. But I realized that they had shop classes and
clubs. And I just started to cry because I said, you know, those
kids I taught in LA, they deserve to go to a school like this.
But they didn't get that.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: And, anyway, so-- and then I taught at Bullard
for 22 years or so.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah. So, I understand you recently retired,
is that correct?
>> Diane Honda: Mm-hmm.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah, yeah. Well, that's a good transition. I
mean, what do you do now?
>> Diane Honda: OK. So, well, I do want to double back and say
that it was a good thing to raise our child here in Fresno. She
went to Clovis West High School and Clovis West High School is a
very integrated school. I mean, not necessarily economically but
it is a little economically, but more racially.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right.
>> Diane Honda: There's a lot. It's so-- She, in some ways,
didn't grow up exactly the way I did. But she grew up in that
kind of atmosphere.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right.
>> Diane Honda: And a little bit naïve to the world but not as
much as me.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right.
>> Diane Honda: And I think had a pretty good education going
into college.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right.
>> Diane Honda: So--
>> Carlene Tinker: Now, so she would be the fourth generation,
Yonsei. Now, did she have much interaction with your parents
when they were alive?
>> Diane Honda: You know what, she really didn't because they
died. She was six when my mom died and eight when my dad passed
away. And so, by the time my mom passed away, my dad was kind of
sickly and so, there wasn't a lot of interactions. So, no, she
really didn't have a whole lot of interaction with older people.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah. So, your story is going to be very
important to her when she sees this, right, this interview?
>> Diane Honda: We'll see. And, by the way, she-- my husband is
a-- Yonsei because her-- his father is a Sansei and his
grandmother is a Nisei.
>> Carlene Tinker: I'll be darned.
>> Diane Honda: So, she's kind of sort of a little bit Gosei.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah. Oh, she's half and half.
>> Diane Honda: A little bit Gosei. Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: So what I'm understanding, Diane, you grew up
in a very small community. Didn't really experience any racism
because you were insulated, you were the dominant group to say
this-- to say the least. And then, when you got to college, you
were protected in another way because you joined organizations
that were principally of your own group. OK. So, it sounds like
you've been kind of I think protected?
>> Diane Honda: Mm-hmm. In many ways all the way->> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: All the way through and even in LA Unified.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: There was quite a strong Japanese-American. And
actually, when it wasn't was once I got to Bullard.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah, yeah.
>> Diane Honda: You know.
>> Carlene Tinker: Well. And when you were at Bullard, I didn't
see any problems with, you know, dealing with the dominant group
if you want to call the Caucasians the dominant.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah, right. Well. And I was 40 by then too. So,
I mean, you know, you kind of have an established life that you
bring with, you know. And I have been a teacher for a long time.
I do know that when I first-- what I felt at Bullard actually
was that they treated me like I was a young teacher. So, you
know, they knew I was newly hired but I was actually almost 40,
I'd actually started teaching since I was 22 since I had almost
20 years. But I remember being in a conference and them saying
something like well, you know, I knew you're a young teacher. I
felt-- I'm going->> Carlene Tinker: Well, thanks for the compliment.
>> Diane Honda: I haven't-- and the other thing is because I
found in Fresno, many women raise children and then came back to
teaching. So, they might be 40 but they might have just started
teaching five years previously.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right. Absolutely.
>> Diane Honda: So, as opposed to my career, it wasn't like
that, so.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right. Now, in-- looking at your own
background and your own history, are you really concerned or not
concerned? But are you interested in finding out about your
background, about your grandparents? Do you ever go back to
Japan? Do you go to Amache, the relocation camp where your mom
and dad met?
>> Diane Honda: OK. So, you know, my brother is awakening of
this is what our history of us about. It was actually pretty
important to me in the sense that I was about 12 or 13 when that
happened. And as much as I probably-- you know, I mean, I really
do look up to my big brother probably since birth. And
everything he did and even though he-- my parents weren't
necessarily really happy with him when he suddenly grew his hair
long and went protesting and those kinds of things. And I didn't
necessarily say, oh, my gosh, I want to do that myself because I
saw the grief that it brought into the family. But I did glean
the importance of what he was doing. So, that made me actually
very interested and aware. So, throughout college, I did do
papers regarding Japanese-Americans and then this woman Helen
[Yuge] who was a friend from church who was probably in her 60s
but I really thought she was very old when I was in my 20s. She
had cancer. She had terminal cancer. And when she was, you know,
among the last times I visited her, she said, you know, Diane,
don't let anyone forget our story. Don't let anyone forget the
story of how we struggled to make it in America, how we got put
in camps, how we struggled and, you know, what happened to us.
And so, that-- those words have always rung through. So, there's
a couple of things that I did in my earlier year. So, when I was
in-- when I was teaching at-- in LA, I was the yearbook teacher.
And so, while I was the yearbook teacher, one of my-- one good
who-- person who became my good friend, [Konnie] Chrislock she
said, I showed her this yearbook when my father-in-law had
passed away that was from Manzanar. And but the thing about this
Manzanar yearbook, not only was it a yearbook of an internment
camp but it was also the pictures were done by Ansel Adams. He's
the famous black-and-white photographer.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right.
>> Diane Honda: So, she saw that and then she got bigger picture
and said, you know, Diane, you should work on reproducing this.
If you can get the money to reproduce this or put kind of some
seed money, she goes, I can get Herff Jones, the yearbook
company, to buy in and maybe get us to reproduce this and
distribute this in some way. So I said, OK. And it happened to
be that that was right after redress had-- they have all the
checks had been issued and it was about five or six years later
and the Civil Liberties grants for teachers were coming out. So,
I applied for a grant for I think, it was almost $40,000.
>> Carlene Tinker: Wow.
>> Diane Honda: And to reproduce these yearbooks and I got it.
>> Carlene Tinker: Wow.
>> Diane Honda: And so->> Carlene Tinker: Yeah, you have it->> Diane Honda: I brought it.
>> Carlene Tinker: -- with you?
>> Diane Honda: Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: So this is the reproduced copy which my friend
and I worked on. And so, the original copy was cardboard. So,
one really odd thing is that this font is called ribbon. And we
had-- and this was put together in 1990s. And I had hired my
yearbook editor from Bullard to come help me to put this
together. It was the year that Princess Diana passed away. So,
whatever year that was. And we were looking a computer to find a
font that looked like this font. And nowadays, you can just go
on internet, you can find anything. But in those old days, all I
had was my computer and then he was working upstairs in what was
our office at the time. And he said, "Ms. Honda, come up here,
come here." And he found the exact font. The exact font that was
on the original book was on my computer and that's weird. But
anyway, so this is recreated. We took a picture. And again-- and
we didn't have the idea of using a computer where you can use
your phone and take the picture. I mean, it was the process of
doing this was taking a picture, digitalizing the picture, keep
putting it into-- And then that's what they did even with each
of the pages in here were all-- there were done with real
photographs.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right.
>> Diane Honda: So, Toyo Miyatake's son, Archie, was still young
at the-- younger at the time. And he had a lot of these pictures
in a file.
>> Carlene Tinker: Wow.
>> Diane Honda: So, he printed these pictures out for me and we
were able to reproduce->> Carlene Tinker: Oh, my god.
>> Diane Honda: -- the book from original pictures and then
Herff Jones actually took-- I mean, if we were to do this now,
it would be so much easier because you could even just PDF the
pages, enhance them. But the way this was done was really in an
old fashioned manner. And so, all-- we recreated all the type,
all of the type we reprinted it and retyped it all and-- But it
all looks authentic to the original because we found this font.
>> Carlene Tinker: Isn't that amazing?
>> Diane Honda: So->> Carlene Tinker: That's so impressive.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. So, it was very amazing. And then what I
did too with the grant money was I-- OK. We're on. So, then the
section here, I was able-- I had a meeting and was able to meet
with all of the editors that were originally from this book. And
they had all tested out of real English or whatever and so got
to work on this book. And, you know, they talked about yearbook
the way kids talk about yearbook, it was their club. They would
stay late. They would, you know, and so I-- I had the picture of
when they were in high school and then this is their picture at
that point in time, was current. And this particular man, Reggie
Shikami is the father of Debbie Ikeda who was the president of
the Clovis Community College. So->> Carlene Tinker: Oh, my goodness.
>> Diane Honda: So, there's a valley tie in. Yeah. And then the
other thing is of all of these, I think there were 14 editors or
14 people. There was only one person who had passed away, at
this point, even though it was a lot later. And then, there's a
great story about Ralph Lazo who went to camp just because his
friends did. But he was actually Mexican and-- Mexican and
Irish. And they didn't really discover he wasn't-- he wasn't
Asian until he volunteered to go to the army. And so, anyway.
And then like I said in here, there are many-- this Helen
Bannai, she was the wife of an assemblyman, I mean.
>> Carlene Tinker: Wow.
>> Diane Honda: They became very, very successful kinds of
people.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>>Diane Honda: And then I did an article on Toyo Miyatake, a
background about the camp itself. And then this is the redress
letter that made it all possible that was signed by->> Carlene Tinker: Awesome.
>> Diane Honda: -- George Bush actually.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh, my goodness.
>> Diane Honda: This was signed by George Bush which, by the
way, today is his funeral.
>> Carlene Tinker: How timely, huh.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. Today is his funeral.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah, coincidentally.
>> Diane Honda: And then I just told a little story about how I
came to do this here.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: And so, it's now been 20 years ago since I
published this book.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right.
>> Diane Honda: Herff Jones did make good on their offer and
they distributed this around the nation, as well as I myself
sold probably about 5000 copies just to people who-- I mean, for
a while these boxes were my living room furniture. I just
stacked them up like a sofa and put a blanket over it.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: Anyway. And so, I know that these books are out.
They're out of publication now but if anybody wants to see it,
they can get a PDF of it on, you know. In fact, they have PDFs
of all the high school yearbooks. And, it's either in Densho or
one of those.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh, OK.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: The Densho is the organization up in Seattle,
right?
>> Diane Honda: Oh, OK. Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: Is the collection of these materials->> Diane Honda: Yeah, online.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah, online, yeah.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: How about that other one? What is the other
album that you're on?
>> Diane Honda: OK. This is a personal book because actually you
were the one that told me about going to Amache and
participating in a dig. And so, you lived there for a week and
then you-- you know, you get to experience. I mean, for me, I
just want to experience, well, what would it be like to live
there for a week? What was the weather like? What was-- I mean
and-- and then my nephew-- Well, actually it's my cousin's son.
I didn't know I come from a big family. There were six. And, all
those six people that survived, they all had multiple amounts of
children and grandchildren. And this is the grand-- great
grandson.
>> Diane Honda: Great grandson…Yeah, the great grandson of my
father's oldest sister. And he was the only one that would go
with me. I asked this big family party and he just said, oh,
I'll go with you Auntie Diane, well, OK. So he was 17 at the
time. He’s a Boy Scout. And so, he had-- you know, there was the
Boy Scout thing that they have there and he participated in
that. He's young so when they needed to whack bushes apart, you
know, he could whack bushes apart. I mean, you know, right
because there were things I did not do. And he used the GPS
monitor, you know, to find things that were underneath or
actually GPS was to locate things and then put it back there.
And then, so, if they wanted to find it again they'll get GPS
and then find it. And then that underground, whatever->> Carlene Tinker: The ground penetration radar.
>> Diane Honda: Ground penetration radar that they could use to- so, anyway, so I took pictures of the surveying it. I think
this is the ground penetration radar. And it was just really a
great experience. And then this was the people-- I think what
the greatest experience and part of this is, is when you look at
these people, these are-- yeah. There we go. We're on.
>> Carlene Tinker: What happens when I do that?
>> Diane Honda: It just blinks red.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: So I know we're on.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK. All right. Diane, I have really enjoyed
talking to you and hearing your story. So, let's talk about-let's summarize your experiences in your story about being a
resident of the San Joaquin Valley and also as a JapaneseAmerican. Has it been a good one? Would you have liked to do
things differently? Just what have you-- what do you feel?
>> Diane Honda: Well, I always thought the San Joaquin Valley
was a place, especially Cortez where I grew up, was a place
where they said only jackrabbits, you know. And it was dusty.
And that the Japanese actually came to make it better. I guess
it kind of goes along with how we make things better, but
anyway. So I felt like the San Joaquin Valley was my home and
that my grandparents were the ones that helped to make the San
Joaquin Valley as, you know, what it is and the agriculture. So,
I've always owned the San Joaquin Valley as my home. My father
would grow things and enter it in the county-- Merced County and
in state fairs. And again, I didn't feel like he was boxed out
of that because he was not Caucasian, you know, I felt. So, I
actually really-- and very honestly and not to be political, but
I've never really felt boxed out of the American society until
now with the current president we have. So, that's just my
feeling about that.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: But it's-- I think for me in the San Joaquin
Valley is what's definitely the place that-- I mean, now my->> Carlene Tinker: Diane, I-- let me backtrack a little bit. Let
me get a little bit of your occupation-- description of your
occupation. How you were trained for becoming a teacher and how
you met your husband.
>> Diane Honda: Oh, OK. So, I went to UCLA from-- I grew up, of
course, in Cortez in Livingston High school. And then from
there, I went to UCLA. And at UCLA, that was a really wonderful
experience as-- in that UCLA was probably twice the size of the
hometown of Turlock. And just being a little fish in the big
pond was really a good experience for me as opposed to being a
daunting experience. I mean, there were things and I did realize
a few things too which is my rural education was much different
than the kids that grew up in the suburbs, even the kinds of
books they read and the things they did. We had a much more
humble or a less rigorous, I guess, education. But-- So, I went
to UCLA and while I was at UCLA, they had a program where you
could get your teaching credential with your bachelors.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: So, I was->> Carlene Tinker: What kind of credential did you get?
>> Diane Honda: So, I was a sociology major and because I did it
my senior year, I was able to get a standard secondary and a
standard elementary.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: Whereas, the people that did it the year
appropriately that I should do it the year after I graduate, got
Ryan single subjects. And so, the standard credentials allowed
me to, actually, after five years get life credentials without
any kind of special classes to take renewal. So, that ended
being a really good decision from the very beginning.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right. What year was that?
>> Diane Honda: That was in 1976.
>> Carlene Tinker: Nineteen seventy-six. Well, just to give you
an idea of how old I am, I have a general secondary->> Diane Honda: Which is the better.
>> Carlene Tinker: Well. It's really funny because when I was
working in Fresno Unified, they gave a list of people who had
general secondaries and I got this in 1961, I think. There were
like about 15 of us in the whole district. And theoretically,
that allowed us to if we had to teach calculus.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. You could teach anything you want. Yeah.
So, the general was even better than the standard. But the
standard is better than the Ryan. And so->> Carlene Tinker: Oh, OK. I didn't realize that.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. And then of course, I don't know what they
have now. But, now I know they have to get their credentials
renewed a lot.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh, do they?
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. And they have to take classes->> Carlene Tinker: Wow.
>> Diane Honda: -- and all the way through.
>> Carlene Tinker: Wow.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. So I got-- So, I-- after I graduated from
UCLA, I decided-- I was about 22 at the time to move back to
Turlock.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: So I moved back, because I thought my parents
were really old but they probably were only like 60 or something
like that. Anyway, so I moved back to Turlock and taught in
Modesto for three years. And which was actually a really good
thing and my UCLA credential opened a lot of doors for me in
that area because most of the people had gone to San Jose State
or maybe a random Fresno State or Sacramento State but no one
had gone to UCLA. And UCLA had this guru Madeline Hunter at the
time that was kind of like the name in education, so everyone
wanted to interview me. So I got a number of interviews and I
was actually hired in a district in Modesto. Then actually
traditionally when I look back at it, it is a pretty-- -- nondesegregated or pretty-- most of the kids were white.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: And they were-- And-- But they were white and
they were the lower economic status.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: And most all the teachers were not necessary.
But then most of the teachers were white as well with a few
Hispanics [inaudible]. I was the only Asian teacher->> Carlene Tinker: Uh-huh. Did that present a->> Diane Honda: -- in the whole district.
>> Carlene Tinker: Did that present any problems?
>> Diane Honda: You know, I don't think it presented-- Yeah, I
don't think it presented any problems because it was not just
being Asian but I was also a little progressive left because I
went to UCLA. And that probably presented more problems than
being Asian, so->> Carlene Tinker: In what way? I'm not sure I understand.
>> Diane Honda: Well, because I think they were very
conservative right, meaning->> Carlene Tinker: Oh, I see what you're saying.
>> Diane Honda: -- area.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right.
>> Diane Honda: And so my ideas of-- well, I remember
specifically there was a library bulletin board that featured
children all around the nation and, you know, so the Asian one
had very slant eyes and you know, and I found that offensive. So
I said I found that offensive and they took it down. But I'm not
really sure that they understood.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right. Was this a really rural school?
>> Diane Honda: Its pretty rural. In fact->> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: -- it's no longer even. When I-- When my husband
told me about it about two, three years ago and it's boarded up,
so it's not used anymore even though it was a fairly new school
when->> Carlene Tinker: At the time.
>> Diane Honda: -- when I got there but I don't know if the
population shifts or what happened because I didn't follow that.
>> Carlene Tinker: What was the name of the high school?
>> Diane Honda: It was called-- It's a middle school. It was
called Empire Senior Elementary. So anyway-- So-- But from
there, my dad told me that I can't just follow them around to
the bazaars and not go anywhere. Because teaching really was all
encompassing, the first three years I went nowhere, except the
classroom and home and I just prepared and worked and that's all
I did. And so he said, "You need to go back to Los Angeles and
like have a life." But-- So I just said, "OK."
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: I mean, it was-- and in those days in LA
Unified, all you needed to do was apply to LA Unified. You took
their test and then they hired you and-- But they didn't hire
you for any specific school, they just hired you. And at that
time when they hired me, it was during the time when they were
trying to desegregate the teachers. So most of the minority
teachers who live say in the LA Basin, so Asian, black and
Hispanic, they placed them in the San Fernando Valley.
>> Carlene Tinker: Is that so?
>> Diane Honda: And most of the San Fernando Valley teachers who
were Caucasian or white, they had them going into the basin.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh.
>> Diane Honda: And as well as they had forced busing at that
time too for the students. So I felt like it-- that when school
started, the teachers clogged the freeways both ways going to
where they don't live near. And that was actually one of the
first times that I really experienced that this is what happens
because you're this race.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right.
>> Diane Honda: So, you're this race, so you can't teach in West
LA or, you know, Marina Del Rey which is the area I lived in, an
area my-- that was traditionally actually Japanese-American and
so was West LA. I actually wanted to teach in that area but they
wanted white teachers to teach there, so.
>> Carlene Tinker: Well, was that sort of the undertone or?
>> Diane Honda: No, it was blatant.
>> Carlene Tinker: Was it wasn't?
>> Diane Honda: Yes, it wasn't->> Carlene Tinker: I'll be darned.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah, it was blatant. So, it was so blatant that
when I was hired in the San Fernando Valley, so originally, so
you're just placed. So I was placed in the San Fernando Valley
deep in Chatsworth at a school. But they actually didn't have an
opening. They just had nowhere to put us. So I was placed there
and I was with another teacher who was a veteran teacher
probably easily within 10 years of retirement who was placed
there too. And we just cleaned rooms for about two weeks. And
she said, "You know, Diane, you should really enjoy this because
this is really easy compared to being in the classroom." And I
thought "Oh, I want to teach, what is she talking about?" But
anyway, so then I finally got hired at a magnet school. And the
magnet schools also were created so that parents would have a
choice but it was really created for integration. So it was
really created for the kids that were a minority to in the
valley to come out to-- I mean, excuse me, in the basin to come
out to the valley.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK. What year was that?
>> Diane Honda: So-- And that was in 19-- I mean 1979 or 1980.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah, OK. Was that happening here in Fresno?
I think that maybe now that's a little bit before what happened
here->> Diane Honda: Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: -- in Fresno. What school were you at? What
was the name of the school?
>> Diane Honda: So I was at Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched
Studies.
>> Carlene Tinker: What was that?
>> Diane Honda: Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies and->> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: -- it was a magnet.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: And the-- when I just talked about extreme
prejudice when I walked in the classroom and to the office, my
name at the time was Yotsuya and the principal who was kind of
cantankerous and actually infamous for being a bit cantankerous.
He just looked at me, he says, "OK, so I can't pronounce your
name and you're obviously not white so you're hired."
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh, my goodness.
>> Diane Honda: So that was the most->> Carlene Tinker: Oh my->> Diane Honda: But, you know, I have to be honest, I didn't
feel bad because I wanted to be placed in an-- in a school and
my friend taught at the school and she was the one that
recommended me to interview at the school or recommended me to
the principal and she had just been hired as well. And
eventually there was me, Ms. Yotsuya, and then there was my
friend Janet, Ms. Yasuda. So that was a little bit difficult for
the kids too, but->> Carlene Tinker: Well, it sounds like you made out well.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah, yeah. No, I enjoyed being in that school.
He also-- I was just-- He was actually a pragmatic guy in the
sense that he said, "OK, so I need you here to be an art teacher
for the fourth, fifth and sixth graders." And I said, "Well,
first of all, I wasn't really very good in art. I never got
anything on the bulletin board and I teach music and I can teach
English and social science." And so then he said, "OK, listen,
you can sub, you know, as a legitimate teacher, you can still
sub as--" because I was already hired, right? "So you can sub
all over the LA Basin which covers a 250-mile radius or
diameter." He goes, "Or you could work here and I'll give you
this folder and you could figure out how to teach art."
>> Carlene Tinker: So what did you do?
>> Diane Honda: So then I said, "OK, I'll figure it out." I
mean, I was like 25, you know, and so I said, "Yeah, I'll figure
it out." So I started out teaching art and then it be-- it was
an art and then-- and they decided, you know what, since you do
music, why don't you do art and music? And it was an enrichment
kind of class for fourth, fifth and sixth graders. And so that's
where I started out but then I ended up actually teaching
English and then I did the choirs. I've got four, or five
choirs. And I actually did yearbook there too and started the
school newspaper.
>> Carlene Tinker: Now, had-- Your musical background, is it in
choir or do you play an instrument?
>> Diane Honda: OK. So, I-- yeah, I started out at UCLA as a
piano, in-- well, actually I got into UCLA as an undeclared
major.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: Because I didn't meet the music theory
requirements to be a music major because they didn't have those
kinds of classes in my school. So I went there but then to be-and then that was another, a little fish-- big pond is. You
know, I was a really good pianist in Livingston. But compared to
the people that were trained in Los Angeles, you know, I was not
good at all. And so that coupled with deciding whether I wanted
to spend these hours and whether I really love this or if I
wanted to explore something else. And what I really want to
explore was journalism because I did like journalism. I was
exposed to it a little in high school not necessarily a great
program. But I wanted to see what it was like at UCLA. And at
UCLA, I was not behind. My stuff was published by-- You know, I
had a lot of success in journalism, so I left the music behind
but I did take while I was there enough piano classes, voice
classes and choral education classes to be able to qualify to
have a credential in music and social science and English.
>> Carlene Tinker: My gosh.
>> Diane Honda: So that worked out very good.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah. You've got them all-- all the basics.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah, because at UCLA they were very interested
in us being employable. So they said, "You're not going to be
employable if you just put music on there or social-- I was a
sociology major so, you know, they don't even teach sociology
in->> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: -- high schools, right? So they said you need to
make sure that you have this-- you know, certain history classes
and certain English classes so that you can teach all of those
things and then they-- with the English-- with the single-- not
single subject but with the standard credential. The
requirements to get expertise in that were less. So that was
also good that I got a single subject.
>> Carlene Tinker: Wow. Wow.
>> Diane Honda: So, yeah. So I ended up-- Yeah. So mainly at
Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies which I stayed there
for about 15 years and that's when I met Larry, he was a->> Carlene Tinker: OK. And Larry is your husband?
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. And he was a substitute teacher.
>> Carlene Tinker: He was.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. And he came from Fresno State. He grew up
in Seaside but he came here to Fresno State because he likes hot
weather.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh my gosh.
>> Diane Honda: Right. Seaside is my Monterey, right?
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah, right.
>> Diane Honda: So he said, in Monterey you have to wear jackets
all year round and he just didn't like that and he really liked
the fact that in Fresno you can wear shorts and you could go
swimming.
>> Carlene Tinker: I need to talk to him about that.
>> Diane Honda: And how-- Yeah. And so he moved to Fresno and he
was in the music department here. And then from here went to Los
Angeles with a jazz group and eventually got his master's degree
at USC.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: So-- But when he was just first moved in order
to make money, he also had a teaching credential. And so he
substitute taught. And my girlfriend, she really wanted to get
married. I mean she really wanted to get married. So every
Japanese-American guy that walked in the doors practically, even
if she sees this she'll laugh. She was wanting to know who he
was. And so when she met Larry she said, "You know, this guy’s
into music and he, you know, so he's more your type." So she
introduced me to him and I just said, "Oh, my gosh, Jen, you're
just crazy." But anyway, in the long run about three years
later, we were married--to him.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah. And so then, how long did you guys live
in LA and when did you move to Fresno?
>> Diane Honda: So we lived in LA for about, I’d say about 12
years. So we got married and he went to USC and so we've been in
the Marina Del Rey area. Then his parents gave us money to put a
deposit on a condo in West LA.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh wow.
>> Diane Honda: And so we purchased that and then he got a job
in the San Fernando Valley. So we not only integrated it, we
moved to the San Fernando Valley and Woodland Hills.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: So, because of the West LA real estate, we were
able to take that, sell it and buy a nice house in Woodland
Hills.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right, so->> Diane Honda: So anyway, so we were in Woodland Hills. And
then it came to a point where we needed to decide with-- we had
a child, Marissa, and we only had one child but we didn't know
that at the time we would only have one. Whether we wanted to
bring her up in Los Angeles, and we were very familiar with what
LA kids were like or if we wanted to get her back into the San-into the San Joaquin Valley. My parents were alive at the time.
I have a lot of family in Turlock. I just thought it would be
really nice to go to Turlock, so-- But, you know, music jobs,
there's not a lot of music jobs, so usually, you know, Turlock
has one high school and they have one music person and they were
still.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: So he had friends in Fresno and the new Buchanan
was just opening. And so the middle school guy was going to the
high school. So the middle school is open. So Larry interviewed
for that and got that job.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: Which ended up being, you know, of course very
good because Turlock is sort-- I mean Turlock is very small and
LA, of course, is very large but Fresno was a really good choice
in the middle->> Carlene Tinker: Right.
>> Diane Honda: -- kind of choice.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right.
>> Diane Honda: And a lot of opportunities for my daughter as
she grew up here in Fresno that they would not have had in
Turlock.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right. OK. So he gets this job in Fresno,
what did you-- what kind of job did you get in Fresno?
>> Diane Honda: Well, so then I entered in-- at this point in
time I have had about four-- maybe more-- maybe about 16 years
of teaching experience. And so I interviewed-- I registered at
Fresno Unified and I interviewed at Fresno High School. And it
was interesting because we rented a house in Clovis and so when
they did my interview they said, "Where do you live?" I said,
"Well, we live in Clovis." And then he goes, "Well, you have no
idea what the kids at Fresno High School would be like then."
Even though I had taught in LA and those school kids were busted
from all over in Los Angeles. And I had a very good idea what->> Carlene Tinker: Of course.
>> Diane Honda: -- kids of->> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: -- color and kids of poverty and all of those
but-- And so they said no, you know, so I didn't get that job.
So then I went to Hoover and interviewed but they said Hoover
was a little bit of a setup because some-- a district supervisor
was actually going to take that job but they had to interview
other people to prove that they wanted her. So anyway, so I was
the other people. So anyway, so I went there and, you know, I
didn't get that job. And so my husband was good friends with Les
Nunes who was the band director at Bullard.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh yes, I remembered him.
>> Diane Honda: And so he said that they-- he said, you know,
"We need a choir director because I'm doing the choir and I
can't do the choir and everything and my band program is big
and--" So Robert Knapp who was the English Department chair, I
really thank him a lot because, you know, he took the chance on
someone who had never taught high school English and-- But hired
me because I could do one period of choir for Bullard and-- but- and four periods of English. And at that point in time the
newspaper position at Bullard wasn't open. And at that point in
time, I didn't even really have time to read, so it was a good
thing, at least fiction. You know, and that's what English was
at that point in time was teaching fiction. And so, I, you know,
give him-- I thank him a lot for that. So from there, you know,
my position at Bullard I was there 21 years and it evolved to be
the newspaper and yearbook opened up. And so in eventuality I
did newspaper. And then at the end of my career, I also did the
yearbook and the newspaper. And then I did the choir when Fresno
Unified decided to fire all their music teachers. And so Tim
Belcher, the principal came to me and said "Would you like to do
the choir?" And I said, "Well, actually not." And the reason I
moved away from music is because my daughter was now old enough
to take lessons and I need-- I needed the afternoon times
instead of doing extra rehearsals or going on trips of the
choir. I wanted to spend that with my daughter and so teaching
English actually fit in better.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: And so he said-- he says, "No." He goes,
"Listen, we fired all the music teachers in Fresno Unified. So,
you have a music credential, you have some that you have
experience," because I did that in LA. And so he says, "So, put
it to you this way, I want them to come in to your class. I want
them to sing every day. They don't have to go to festival. They
don't have to travel. They don't have to do anything. All they
have to do is go in in there and sing. And if you don't want to
do that, then we're not having any music at Bullard at all." So
then I said, "OK, I would do that." But I called myself the
interim choir director. But I was the interim choir director for
five years. So-- And then they hired a band director that needed
another band director so they took over the choir. But anyway,
but it was a wonderful experience being at Bullard High School.
I met you at Bullard High School. And the students there were
actually unlike any of the other student populations I had
taught. They were mostly at that point in time mostly upper
class white students.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right. Right. And, yes, we did meet there and
because of you, my interest in-- or your parents' internment
camp and my own internment camp which happens to be Amache.
Because of you and your experience with Amache, that's how I got
started in learning about my own history.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: I have that to thank you. What year did you
first enter Bullard and you just recently retired?
>> Diane Honda: Yeah, I retired in 2015. And so I started
Bullard probably in 1994 or something like that->> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: -- somewhere in that->> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: -- time period.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right. And I was there twice, 1986 to '93 and
then I came back 2000 to 2003, something like that.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. And then your daughter continued.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah. And my daughter still teaches there.
Now, I'm not sure how this fits in->> Diane Honda: Oh, sure I could talk about this.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah. I want you to share with the viewers
here the work that you've done as a journalist and then also as
a descendant of Amache people and then also with your uncle. So
let's first start with the-- your book.
>> Diane Honda: OK. So when I was in Los Angeles, I did the
yearbook and my-- and I did the yearbook. I did probably at
least 10 years of yearbooks. And my yearbook rep-- was a gal
named [Konnie] Chrislock who became actually a very good
lifelong friend. We're still seeing each other. And I was
telling her about how my father-in-law had recently passed away.
And so that was probably-- or in the early 1990s. But he had
left this yearbook or he had this yearbook. And my mother-in-law
said, "You're the yearbook teacher, you want to take a look at
it? If you want it, you can have it." And so I looked at the
yearbook and it was from Manzanar High School and it covered
grades 7 through 12.
>> Carlene Tinker: This is your father or->> Diane Honda: My father-in-law.
>> Carlene Tinker: Father-in-law, OK.
>> Diane Honda: Ansel Adams was its photo-- was the main->> Carlene Tinker: Oh, that's right. Right.
>> Diane Honda: -- photographer. So Ansel Adams in his fame->> Carlene Tinker: Well, also Dorothea Lange.
>> Diane Honda: But then we didn't have any Dorothea Lange
pictures in here. These were all Ansel->> Carlene Tinker: Just Ansel's, OK.
>> Diane Honda: -- Ansel Adams pictures. So, that of course made
me very interested. There were pictures of Ansel Adams in here.
Then the other photographer that took many of the pictures was
Toyo Miyatake who in the Japanese-American community is as
famous as Ansel Adams, or even more so because he took many
family portraits and those sorts of things. So I was showing
that to my friend Konnie and she said, "You know, Diane, you
should reproduce this. I work for Herff Jones, you know, we
don't do that much during the summer. Maybe you could put this
together and we could reproduce it." So the first thing I said,
OK. So the first thing I did was I started making slides. I made
slides and I did presentations at the National Journalism
Education Association Conferences about this yearbook, where it
came from, kind of from the idea that your yearbook needs to
tell a story. And your stories, you
to the year you're there. And so it
received. And the students in these
do, it was part of the-- they would
journals of students at these--
know, need to be prevalent
was-- they were very well
presentations that I would
be anywhere from 3 to 5,000
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh my.
>> Diane Honda: -- and you would have-- they could choose which
workshops they wanted to attend. And so mine was one of the
workshop and it was almost always attended by about 40 or 50
people.
>> Carlene Tinker: Wow.
>> Diane Honda: So that right there showed me that there was
interest. And then I would get other kinds of comments that
said, you know, that's a very interesting story. I really like,
you know, first of all I didn't know this is what happened. I
think one of the things that was most poignant to them are these
pictures of the students with their names and the high school
they would have graduated from had they not been interned. And
so to them, to see these senior portraits and see that these
people did not get to go to their senior high school and they
were instead put in these camps was pretty telling to them. And
so, I got a lot of, you know and lot of things from kids or a
lot of interest from the students. And then of course I studied
it a little bit more too. And then this guy Ralph Lazo, Lazo is
not a Japanese name. And so, you know, I found-- because at that
point in time, in the '90s when this came out, there were still
people that were living that worked on this book. And he was not
living at the time but he was actually a friend of a lot of the
kids that went to camp and went and did activities with them.
And I guess in the 1940s, people didn't keep track of their
children as well because his mom had passed away. His sister was
working. His father was working and he decided to go to camp
with them. So when they went to camp, he just got on the train.
>> Carlene Tinker: Is that how he got there?
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. And so they said, "You know, Ralph, you
can't be on this train because you're not Japanese," and he
goes, "It's OK, I'm just going to be here." And then they said,
"No, you can't be here." So he went to the back of another car
and he just sat there. And so when he got to camp, they just
took him in and he didn't have any family. So they put him in-he was at the time, he must have been about 15 or 16 but they
took him in and then they put him in the bachelor quarters
because he didn't have a family. And it really wasn't until he
graduated high school and he enlisted in the army that they
realized he was not Japanese at all. He was Hispanic and Irish,
so-- But he was a really good friend and as you see he was a
class officer.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: And so through his friends, I was able actually
to write a story about him in the back of this book.
>> Carlene Tinker: Let me interject the question here. Now,
these pictures were some that you just picked up from the first
yearbook.
>> Diane Honda: Yes.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: So the first book for the very-- the authentic
yearbook had this in it.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: It was the same entry. The cover was made up of
a different material that wasn't quite as durable as this. But
the inside, we were actually able to scan them or Toyo
Miyatake's son, Archie, was able to provide me with new prints.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh my gosh.
>> Diane Honda: That he printed out for me.
>> Carlene Tinker: And then I understand you-- did you rewrite a
lot of that stuff or->> Diane Honda: No.
>> Carlene Tinker: -- is any of that original?
>> Diane Honda: All of this is original. All of this is
original.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh, yeah.
>> Diane Honda: So all of these pictures, everything is
original.
>> Carlene Tinker: That is absolutely amazing.
>> Diane Honda: And I
Merit, he has passed.
so all of these-- and
that Jeanne Wakatsuki
interviewed Helen-- this is the-- Ralph
But this Helen Bannai was in here and I-this picture right down here was a picture
Houston who wrote "Farewell to Manzanar".
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh, yeah, yeah.
>> Diane Honda: She is in this picture and she-- or she uses
that picture.
>> Carlene Tinker: Is she one of those?
>> Diane Honda: No, she's not one of these but she uses that
picture as part of her. And she is in the baton club in here as
one of the little ones in there.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah. She actually went to the high-- same
high school my cousin went to after we came back, Long Beach
Poly.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. She writes in "Farewell to Manzanar" that
was a tough time for her.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right. Right.
>> Diane Honda: Really tough time for her.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right. Now your father-in-law, where were
they in assembly center, Santa Anita probably?
>> Diane Honda: OK. So my father-in-law, they were in Monterey
but they felt like they would be safer if they were with
relatives. So they moved into San Pedro.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK. Yeah. Then they went to->> Diane Honda: And they're from San Pedro. I don't know that
they went to Santa Anita but they ended up in Manzanar.
>> Carlene Tinker: Probably. Yeah. Because my aunt was a-- she
worked in a cannery in San Pedro in Terminal Island, and we all
got sent to Fres-- I mean, Santa Anita family center.
>> Diane Honda: OK.
>> Carlene Tinker: So then they split us up. For example, I went
to Amache.
>> Diane Honda: Right.
>> Carlene Tinker: Some people went to Manzanar. Some went to
Jerome, my cousins. Yeah. so, yeah, I think they wanted to break
us up because they didn't think you should be together.
>> Diane Honda: Right. Because it was such a large population.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. So, anyway, so it was interesting. It
turns out that these seniors tested out of regular English. So
they were put in this yearbook class. And then I actually read
more in the last 10 years got a call from the niece of the woman
that was the yearbook advisor and how she, you know, what she
felt about doing this and why it was important to do the
yearbook and how she took it out of camp to have it published.
And that was, you know, that's a big deal but actually all the
camps did have yearbooks but it was a big deal I think for her
to do that.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right.
>> Diane Honda: This is an original picture and this is the same
end sheet but it's in black and white.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: And then this is the-- actually the two
yearbooks, so this was the first but the last picture in the
second one was this. And that was because they knew they were
getting out.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yes.
>> Diane Honda: And so he staged this picture, Toyo Miyatake
staged this picture.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh, that's wonderful.
>> Diane Honda: So I included it because I just thought it was
so->> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: -- poignant. And so this was another letter
about their experiences written by Helen Bannai. And Helen
Bannai's husband was a state assemblyman, Paul Bannai.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: And then I was able to interview all but one of
the editors to kind of say this is what happened to them. One of
them passed away but if you figure that I did this in the '90s
and this was done in the '40s that it's pretty amazing that they
were still->> Carlene Tinker: That they were around.
>> Diane Honda: That they were around and they were actually
very successful. So I took and have the picture of them in high
school and the most current picture which probably wasn't that
current but-- that they provided for me and->> Carlene Tinker: And there is Ralph Lazo.
>> Diane Honda: And this is the Ralph Lazo story. And then I
also did a story on Toyo Miyatake and what he meant to the
Japanese-American community. And then this is just a->> Carlene Tinker: Now, just a second on Toyo, isn't he one who
was-- who illegally brought in the camera and wasn't he the one,
I think there's a story about him having a box and he's got his
camera inside. And so he is not-- he's sneaking in and his
camera was not detected for awhile->> Diane Honda: Well->> Carlene Tinker: -- or what was the story on that?
>> Diane Honda: What was-- he snuck in a lens and the mechanism
to hold the film, and he took the pictures from that box.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh, is that how->> Diane Honda: Yeah. So it was, yeah, it was pretty amazing.
And then this is just a background information, because what I
really thought this would be in eventuality so, I-- so Konnie
gave me that idea while I was still living in LA. But I actually
didn't finish this project until I came to Fresno.
>> Carlene Tinker: Is that right?
>> Diane Honda: And when I came to Fresno I hired one of my
editors at Bullard to work with me over the summer. And we
worked on this and we put this together. I want-- I think it was
in 1998, it was in the '90s and->> Carlene Tinker: And didn't you also get a grant to do this?
>> Diane Honda: Yes. This grant came. This is the redress letter
that was issued to each of the people who were in the camps.
This one was signed by George Bush.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right.
>> Diane Honda: And so I did-- Yes, they were what they called
Civil Liberties grants. And so, I got a Civil Liberties grants
to reproduce this. I sold them to the Japanese-American
community by mail order. And then, I sold them at journals and
conferences because I went back with these. And then the
remainder of them were actually sold by the Japanese-American
National Museum which was pretty new at the time but-- So I
believe that I ordered about 2,000.
>> Carlene Tinker: Whoa.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. I mean that's where most of the money went
was to purchase.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: And then I sold them all. And then yeah, they
were sold. And then the money that I made from it, I used for
promotion.
>> Carlene Tinker: Good.
>> Diane Honda: So the promotion to--And-- But what I discover- OK, so, this is a companion actually with "Farewell to
Manzanar" because in the book "Farewell to Manzanar" she talks
about finding this yearbook in the closet. And that, well, it
brought back memories. And she specifically talks about that
picture, a little baton girl. Even though she wasn't in it she
remembered that. And once she was-- explained that to her
husband who is an English professor at UC Santa Cruz I think,
she-- He said, you know, you need to write that story. So, she
with the help of her husband James Houston.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh, that's how it came about.
>> Diane Honda: Wrote that story. Yeah. And so this is just-talks about the camps and it also gave resources which probably
at this point are 30 years old so, they’re probably not. And
these are the people that helped me with it and my student and
myself and what I look like and kind of why I did that is what
this is all about.
>> Carlene Tinker: And I kind of remembered too that you said
something about the font. You->> Diane Honda: Mm-hmm.
>> Carlene Tinker: You--Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: OK. So, on here on this back part, all of these
spots here was created or right here you could see easier, was
created in the '90s. And so what I had in Macintosh box
computer, you know, they look like-- they're just a big box. And
I don't even know where the font came from, but my student Nick
Bruque who worked with us on, I said, you know, we need to find
a font that looks like, you know, these fonts here or these
fonts here. And so he says, I think I found one, it's called
ribbon. And I went what?
>> Carlene Tinker: What is it called?
>> Diane Honda: Ribbon.
>> Carlene Tinker: Ribbon?
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. I mean, and you were talking about in the
'90s this was done, you know. And so you couldn't just go on the
internet and download->> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: -- fonts. And for some reason it was there from
maybe some print. I mean, I don't even know why it was there. I
just like to think it was just, you know, it was just meant to
be. So anyway, so he found it and he put, he-- we worked on it
together and worked on these pages together. And so now, it's
been 20-- more than 20 years. In 2015 they told me it had been
20 years since. So I guess 1995 is when we-- since it had been
produced and some of the teachers, journalism teachers were
saying I need to reproduce it again for the new generation of
teachers. But it's actually online. It's online and available in
PDF. I think there is all the camp yearbooks are available
online on-- as PDFs.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah. What a contribution, that is marvelous.
>> Diane Honda: So->> Carlene Tinker: Let me set this down over here. Let's
continue with sort of your history in the valley. It sounds like
quite different from my own experience and my parents'
experiences. You grew up in a very nice area, you didn't really
feel discrimination, there were-- might couple incidents. I
think one time you were-- I think you were shopping and somebody
referred to you as a Jap or?
>> Diane Honda: Oh, swimming with my friends in that community
pool.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh, was that what-- yeah.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: But that's really not, not a big->> Diane Honda: Right. It was not really that big but--
>> Carlene Tinker: And then even when you were at UCLA compared
to my experience, you-- For some reason-- and I think you
explained it earlier, that the reason you probably didn't feel a
lot of discrimination or racism was because you were in a group
of Japanese-American student.
>> Diane Honda: A lot of them.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah. And I on the other hand, did not. OK. I
came from Long Beach and there were just the two of us. My
friend was also Japanese American. I tried to join a sorority. I
tried to be a pep girl and it was not going to happen. OK.
Because I was supposed to go to a Japanese sorority I was-- And
I had not had that experience, so I didn't want to do that. So,
my experience was quite different, and not particularly bad but
different. OK. Now, let's see, I was going to ask you about your
experience with Amache. Your parents as I recall met in Amache
which is one of the 10 relocation camps. And I know too that we
talked about-- Well, you first of all introduced me to Amache
because you went to one of the pilgrimages. What year was that?
1998 or something? Was it about the->> Diane Honda: Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: -- about that time?
>> Diane Honda: That sounds about, right.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. That sounds correct.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right. And so that kindled my interest and I- in 2006 I think it was I took a little-- My husband and I were
en route to Connecticut where our son was studying and doing a
postdoc. And so we took a side trip. And from there it's
history. I've been very involved with the Amache Camp. And I
think I told you about the Amache field school. And
coincidentally you went to these. You want to describe what
those field schools are?
>> Diane Honda: Well, first of all, it wasn't a coincidence. You
told me about that. So, I didn't find about them independently.
Bonnie had a sabbatical. And during her sabbatical she went to
visit different colleges and talk. And so she came here to
Fresno State. And so I went to that Fresno State meeting and->> Carlene Tinker: Was that over-- was that the archeology?
>> Diane Honda: Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK. All right.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah. Because of that I-- yeah, she came.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah, and that's because of you.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. So it's not a coincidence. So-- And then
while I was there, there were other people [Sab Masada] were
there and they talked about how interesting and how this would
be so great. And then my-- someone that was actually even older
than my brother, Kenny Narita [assumed spelling] from Cortez who
became a principal but at that time had been retired, newly
retired. He also said, "God, Diane, this is great. We should all
go." So I thought, "OK, we should all go." So then, I went home
and told my family, "We should all go, this is really great."
And my own immediate family were like, "Maybe you could ask your
cousins and see what they think." And so I asked my cousins. My
daughter actually had gone to the pilgrimage. So she knew where
this was, but she was-- said she was busy. And so I went to my
cousins at 4th of July because we have quite of a 4th of July
reunion in Turlock. And I told them all about it and they just
all looked at me like, OK. And then one of my cousin's sons who
became an Eagle Scout and he just walked by and he goes, "I'll
go with you auntie." And I said, "Really?" I mean, because he
just actually walked in and walked out. And then later I asked
him again he was, "oh yeah." And then I got the information
because I'd signed up. And so Bonnie sent me the information
about school. And so I taught-- I called Tyler's mom and said
OK. And he was 16 at the time or something, going to be a senior
maybe. And I said, "Does he really want to do this?" She said,
"Yeah." And then, so I got the plane reservations and then, I
said, "Are you sure? I'm hitting the return button right now."
And he definitely wanted to go. And so we went together. And
Tyler's not someone that I really knew really well because, you
know, I knew him of course as a baby and growing up but not
spend a week with him. So-- And we got put up in that hotel in-what's the name of that neighbor in->> Carlene Tinker: In Holly?
>> Diane Honda: In Holly->> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: -- I think it was.
>> Carlene Tinker: Holly Suites Inn or something like-- it's a
very old hotel.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. It's a very old, old hotel where the hot
water comes out of the cold.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah, it's bare bones.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah, yeah. And so, anyway, so we both-- so we
stayed there and it was very good. It was a very good experience
because I look at Tyler being-- Tyler's grandfather is a Sansei.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: So, I don't even know what that makes him beyond
a Yonsei. Gosei I guess.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh, his grand-- oh yeah, he might be Gosei.
>> Diane Honda: Yes. His grandfather is a Sansei. Because his
grandmother was in-- great grandmother was a Nisei.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: So, you know, in some ways if-- OK. What will
this kid contribute to this? But he actually contributed a lot
and he learned a lot. And I think it was a very good trip for
him to do. And then of course he was 17, so if you wanted people
to cut down brush, or do any of those things.
>> Carlene Tinker: To do that. Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: He could do it and he had the gumption to do
those things and digging holes. But he also ran the GPS thing
and then that thing that-- or that you hold, right? And then he
also ran that thing that shows what's underneath.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right, the ground penetrating radar.
>> Diane Honda: Yes. Yeah, the radio waves.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: So, he, you know, I think and then he met of
course all the kids that were there for the whole summer. So, I
think it was a great experience for him and for me as well.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah. This is an archeology field school that
Dr. Bonnie Clark teaches kids from not just DU, Denver
University but all over the United States they get credit. In
one month they can go from step one to step-- and step to become
an archeologist. It's not concentrating on just one phase, they
learn everything. And also, if they wanted to become a museum
curator they can also learn how to do that. And she employs a
lot of her own students, grad students and they're coming back.
And that's how I got started. Not-- I'm not a former student but
one of her workshops that I attended at the reunion in Las Vegas
I volunteered. And in 2010 I volunteered and I went for two
weeks and I've gone every two years since then. So I've done
five of them now.
>> Diane Honda: Wow.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: Wow.
>> Carlene Tinker: So the whole idea is to teach kids how to
become archeologist. So you want to show a little bit about your
memory book there?
>> Diane Honda: Yes. So this was just us on our way. And the
idea when we got there, what we did and what I did is I put this
together because-- there were two things. So Tyler actually did
a daily video of each day, what we did and how we did it, kind
of a vlog they call it, V-L-O-G.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right.
>> Diane Honda: And so, at the end of the day after we took our
showers I had to go over to his room and he videotaped us
talking about what we did for the day.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh, how awesome.
>> Diane Honda: And so, the following summer he showed that
vlog. I mean, we only did about say five minutes a day. But
anyway, showed the vlog to the family. And then we said, "Don't
you guys all want to go?" And anyway, they still didn't want to
go. They wanted to go to the open house they said.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: So anyway, so after we went in the summer, Tyler
got his Eagle Scout. So, I wanted to present this to him as his
Eagle Scout present. And so that's why I put it together. And I
also wanted to also chronicle what we did. And so, there's a
picture right here for example of my mother's family standing in
front of a barrack at camp. And they-- And then this is my
mother in front of that same barrack. And then when we were
there the archeologist students that were there showed us
because we knew where the address was, where they believe that
camp was. So this is us standing in front of-- and so, I like to
think maybe one of these trees here, it's a stump, because I
mean it's 50 years later. But so-- But to me it was-- it was
really a great experience because first of all, I kind of
experienced the weather and what it's like to be there, what it
would be like if I wasn't spending a week there but this is
where I had to live, and putting up with that weather which was
quite drastic just during the day. It could be raining and
thundering and then in the afternoon be nice, or. I mean, it's
just-- it's a brutal place to live and even now, not many people
live there.
>> Carlene Tinker: That's right.
>> Diane Honda: And so I thought that was a great thing for me
with my mother's family. Tyler comes from my father's side. This
is where the Boy Scout building was, and so he took a picture
with another grandson that was there who is also a Boy Scout.
And these guys here were all Boys Scout eagle. They all earned
their-- yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh, it was the [inaudible]. And Cody is the
one with a beard.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. They had all earned their eagle scouts.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: And so these are just some of the activities
that we did. And the more-- And then one of the things that we
did while we were there is we visited the Sand Creek Massacre. I
don't know if you've gone to that.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah, I do.
>> Diane Honda: And it's a Native American site where they were
massacred.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: This is essentially->> Carlene Tinker: The army-- Just a part of the army went in.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: It was not condoned by the government but it
was [inaudible].
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. And so this is all the fieldwork that we
did just to remind him. And of course as you said in the
afternoon, we worked in the museum itself and curating the
objects. And so these were just some of the things that we did
and saw. And it was really a good-- it was really good. All
right. It was-- I don't know how to describe it except-- OK. So
this is 2014. I should put that on the front of the book.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: Anyway, it was really a good experience for us
to be there.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: And to do this. And he went on to UC Irvine and
he's in his last year right now.
>> Carlene Tinker: Where?
>> Diane Honda: UC Irvine.
>> Carlene Tinker: Good for him.
>> Diane Honda: And he's very involved in their [Taiko] group.
>> Carlene Tinker: Good.
>> Diane Honda: So he, you know, definitely not just from me. In
the summers, I think it's important to talk about actually. In
the summers my sister-in-law about 30 years ago started this
thing call a Gakko or a school but-- Japanese school. But it
wasn't about Japan. She wanted to concentrate on Japanese
American history. So, all the kids, K through eight are in
classes where for one week, just in the mornings, they learn
about Japanese-American history.
>> Carlene Tinker: Wow.
>> Diane Honda: From the time that they're in kindergarten to
eighth grade. And I did the seventh and eighth grade class, and
Tyler went through that program.
>> Carlene Tinker: Wonderful.
>> Diane Honda: And as did my daughter. And so, that also gave
them real-- you know, they think about Gakko and they remember
the experiences and the things that they learned at Gakko.
>> Carlene Tinker: Awesome.
>> Diane Honda: So->> Carlene Tinker: I want to point out that Amache is in
Southeastern Colorado on Highway 50, the Santa Fe Trail. And
it's named after the daughter of the chief who was killed, who
was massacred at the Sand Creek massacre. Her name was Amache
and somebody from Lamar, a nearby town suggested that name for
the camp. And the reason why they renamed the camp, which is
technically called Granada relocation camp. The reason they
renamed it was because the little town just a mile away was
inundated with mail for the camp people. And so they couldn't
handle it. Obviously there are 7,000 people at the camp and
maybe 300 people in the town. So that's why it got renamed. OK.
Incidentally, the museum and all of Granada was just pummeled
this summer, this past summer with hailstorms. So big that it
ripped out windows, knocked out windows in the new barrack that
they had just put in a few years ago. Hundreds of thousands of
dollars of damage has been done. And they are still working
through that. But on the good side, I just got a letter from
John Hopper who runs the camp. He is the local high school
principal. And he has a special group of students called the
Amache Preservation Society. They maintain the camp. Well
anyway, across the street from the museum, the bank is giving up
their building and giving it to the APS. They are going to
continue with the ATM, but will now have a bigger museum.
>> Diane Honda: Wow.
>> Carlene Tinker: And they're going to be able to expand. So->> Diane Honda: Wow.
>> Carlene Tinker: -- that there is awesome. It's really good
news. Yeah. So, let's move along. One of the things what we
didn't talk about was redress. You did show in your yearbook
there the letter from George H.W. Bush with-- that was sent to
people who got reparations as a result of the 1988 Civil
Liberties Act. I think that's correct. And we each, whoever was
in the camp, got $20,000. OK. And we-- I don't know, your
parents got it I'm sure. OK. There were some of us who-- some of
the Japanese-Americans who refused it. But recently to you-that you brought to mind an article about your uncle, James
Murakami. And I think he played a role in this. And I like you
to talk about that a little bit for our readers or viewers.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah, my uncle Jim Murakami was the national
JACL president when they first started talking about this
redress and moving forward. Actually-- and he actually wasn't
talk-- yeah. Actually, he was more-- And so he-- actually, I'm
going to take that back. He was involved with the JACL at that
time. But where he was actually more involved with is the JACL
accepting the resisters and what the resisters did into the
JACL.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: And I don't know if that's mentioned to him. But
anyway, and the controversy in the JACL between the 442 and the
draft resisters from Heart Mountain, and whether they're both
considered heroes. And our generation, my generation who were
not in the camps who didn't know the men that did either, we
look at both of them as heroes to be able to stand up for a
constitutional right and say, "I'm not going to go to the
military unless my parents are released from their prison
camps." And be willing to go to prison for that. That's a heroic
thing. But going to the war and fighting in Europe and losing-many, many, many people lost their lives, that is heroic. So,
yeah, when he was president one of the big things was the
argument as to which ones were more heroic.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right. Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: The 442s are always looked at as being heroic.
But my uncle Jim was a role model to me for being an advocate->> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: -- and activist.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right. And that brings up a question in my
mind, you know, what would I have done, what would I have done,
you know, put yourself in the place of the people who were given
those loyalty questions, how would you have responded if your
parents were there with you? Some people answered no, no, you
know. And some people say that was wrong but, you know. You kind
of think about it, right?
>> Diane Honda: Right. Because if your parents only speak
Japanese and you're the one speaking English for them and you're
foreswearing allegiance to the emperor of Japan, again, as it
said it's like asking them to say do you like your mother better
or your father and who are you going with?
>> Carlene Tinker: Right.
>> Diane Honda: And, yeah, I think ended up-- And actually they
were asking, "Do you want allegiance to your family or
allegiance to your country?"
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah, absolutely.
>> Diane Honda: And so, some of the people that answered no were
actually having allegiance to their family.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right. Right.
>> Diane Honda: So--
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah, I've had the experience.
>> Diane Honda: Pretty tough.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah. I had the experience of interviewing a
couple families, a couple people from families that answered no,
no. And their responses and why they did it were different. You
know, as what you're alluding to right now. Let's see here. Let
me summarize what we have talked about. In general you've been
able to tell us what its been like to be a Japanese American.
How would you identify yourself ethni-- if you-- if somebody is
introducing you and what would you-- how do you first introduce
yourself? Do you say, I'm Japanese American or I'm Diane Honda
or what? How do you do that?
>> Diane Honda: Well, I definitely give them my name Diane
Honda. My daughter said when she went to college if she said she
was Japanese American the other kids go, you don't look like
you're part Caucasian, which is not the answer that I got when I
went to college. When I went to college I said I was Japanese
American. I think pretty much everyone realized I was an
American of Japanese descent. So I thought it was interesting
that it had kind of devolved into Japanese American that you're
Japanese and Caucasian.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh my.
>> Diane Honda: So I thought that was kind of interesting first
of all.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: But she went to school with a lot of kids who
are considered Shin-Nisei which means they are new Niseis, their
parents were not part of interment experience but they were new
immigrants and they were the children of these new immigrants.
And so it was a difference. But one thing that I will say that
is very recent is that I did the 23andMe DNA test. And so, I am
97% Japanese but then I'm 3% Korean. So that's kind of cool
actually. Because, you know, and so they said from five to eight
generations ago some Korean person was in there, right?
>> Carlene Tinker: And entered the bedroom.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. Yeah. And also what prefectures I'm from
was different from what my parents told me. So, my parents said
that we were from Fukui and Kumamoto. But the 23andMe said that
my predominant prefecture is Yamaguchi.
>> Carlene Tinker: Where is that in relation to--
>> Diane Honda: And it's not that-- Well, it's on I guess the-I guess it's on the same side but it's not that close.
>> Carlene Tinker: And they actually->> Diane Honda: Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: -- will tell you what prefecture?
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. And my daughter did it as well. And she is
also 3% Korean which means that my husband gave her some Korean
too. He has not done it. But his family all came from Wakayama.
His parents, both side grandparents, and her predominant
prefecture is Wakayama.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh my god.
>> Diane Honda: So, yeah. So it is kind of->> Carlene Tinker: That leaves me, maybe I ought to do that and
see what mine is like. OK. I think we have done a pretty good
job in describing your life as a Japanese-American living in the
San Joaquin Valley. And I have particularly learned a lot about
the Yamato Colony which is where you have spent your early times
of your life. My final question is how would you like to be
remembered? What is your legacy? That's a tough question.
>> Diane Honda: Its a daunting question. Mother, teacher,
Christian. I-- yeah, I-- that's something-- it's actually
something I don't think about but it is something I do think
about because now especially in retirement, you know, you want
to make sure that your days count. You know, you can just sit
around and enjoy yourself and sleep and watch TV, but if you're
healthy and you can walk around, why you--why do that, you know.
There are things that you want to do. So I'm not really sure. I
guess, historian, I do a lot of sewing, and so I imagine the
sewing projects I do will outlive me. The projects that I did,
these photographs and things, those will outlive me.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: I'm not really sure.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah. I know it's a tough question. So, let's
put it this way. How do you think you've contributed as a
person? What have you contributed? Well, you know, that would be
part of your legacy.
>> Diane Honda: That's not as-- and what-- OK. So, basically as
a teacher for 38 years I spent my life as a teacher, so I hope
there are some students along the way that felt like something
they did in the classroom helped them grow as a person. That I
would like to think is my main-- And then in my own family I
hope that things that I've done within the family has helped
people grow. So that, you know, when I-- You're a kid you say,
you know, I want to grow up and I want to make a difference. I
want to do something that makes a difference. And so, my brother
was very involved with the Asian American movement, and so he
made a difference by being an activist. And I haven't been an
activist in a bold sense, but in more of a passive sense of
creating the yearbooks, speaking about it. But what I mean is
I'm not-- gone out and protested. But in those kind of
background senses I'd like to hope that I helped to contribute.
And even that yearbook, you know, and I also have a very strong
belief in providence so that the yearbook, I produced it, you
know, I told you the story of how it came about. But then I got
many letters back that said, you know, this caused our family to
talk about this and this made a difference and this was a big
deal. I like to think that. I don't necessarily think that
that's what's going to happen. But yes->> Carlene Tinker: But that it was-- it was an unintended
consequence.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: And I think too that actually is something
that I am hoping that through this project people will read your
story as well as the others I've interviewed. And this will open
up a lot of people to in their families talk about something
that was very shameful. But now it's time to talk about it to
our family and to our descendants. And then the kids will
understand where their parents and grandparents and great
grandparents be.
>> Diane Honda: Yes. And I also think what's really important is
the Japanese American National Museum. Because I think as they
portray what happened to Japanese American culture in America, I
think that that's a very important place.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right. Right. Well, thank you so much, Diane.
I’ve really enjoyed talking to you and hearing your story and
I'm sure others will as well. It's been a great contrast between
my experience growing up and I-- How much older than I am. I'm
going to be 80 years this year.
>> Diane Honda: So, I'm 65. Fifteen years.
>> Carlene Tinker: Fifteen years difference. And that gives you
an idea of what history does in just--15 years is not very much.
But your experiences are much more positive than mine and I
learn->> Diane Honda: Well, yeah. And I'm going to say one of the
things I was fortunate even the Vietnam experience, when I was-went to the Vietnam wall, well, I went with a bunch of teacher
friends. And the ones that are just one year older than me, they
graduated in '71, they had many friends on the wall. They
experienced it and their experiences with the Vietnam War. And
all that meant was very different from me who graduate in just
one later in '72 because they ended the draft.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: And so all my friends that if they did go they
volunteered and they did not go en masse. And so, I do not know
anyone on that wall. So, it is history does play a big
difference in->> Carlene Tinker: Yeah. Yes.
>> Diane Honda: And I was fortunate to be born or maybe I just—
blinders on, I don't know.
>> Carlene Tinker: Now, OK, well thank you. Is there anything
that you would like to add? Is there something that really
burning that I did not address?
>> Diane Honda: Well, I want to spend some time to thank you for
doing this. This is really an amazing project that you're doing.
And I really appreciate what you are doing to add to the
Japanese American experience and history for perpetuity I
suppose or as long as videos last.
>> Carlene Tinker: Well, thank you. I appreciate that and
hopefully the project will continue after I've stopped
volunteering. I think it's worthwhile. And certainly there are a
lot of people now who are willing to talk. So, thank you very
much and I appreciate your comment.
>> Diane Honda: Thanks, Carlene.
>> Diane Honda: Good morning.
>> Carlene Tinker: Welcome to Special Collections. We're located
in the Henry Madden Library at Fresno State. Special Collections
has an extensive collection of stories given by different
groups. OK. And we're going to be giving your story as part of a
new project which we call the Issei to Gosei Project. Basically
our focus is to find out what it's been like for you to live in
the valley and also at the same time, to experience-- to find
out what your experience has been like to be a JapaneseAmerican. OK. Now, before we proceed, I'd like to explain to the
readers, to the visitors of this interview what some of the
terms are that we're using today. The title of our project,
Issei to Gosei, actually is a kind of a condensed version of
five different generations that are going to be interviewed for
this project. So let me define some of those terms. Issei is
those individuals-- are those individuals who came from Japan
way back maybe in the 1800s, early 1900s. Nisei are the first
generation born here, children of the Isseis, OK, but the second
generation of Japanese-Americans. The third generation are the
Sansei, third because they are the grandchildren of the Isseis
but the second born here in United States. Then our children,
you and I happen to be Sanseis, our children are called Yonsei,
the fourth generation, the third born here in the United States.
And finally, our project is extending to the fifth generation
because we know there are some individuals who would be willing
to experience this interview project. And so they’re the fifth
generation. And so, if the project continues beyond that, we'll
be going to the sixth generation, et cetera. So, Diane, if I may
call you that, or what-- if you will please give me your full
name and including your maiden name.
>> Diane Honda: OK. My name is Diane Sadaye, that's my middle
name and Yotsuya is my maiden name and Honda is my married name.
Although I pronounce it Honda because the Honda car is very
popular and advertised a lot in the United States. So it's Diane
Honda.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yes. But the correct pronunciation would be
Honda.
>> Diane Honda: Correct.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right. OK. As I've said, your interview will
become part of the many collections that we have in a digital
form. And these are open to the public to view. Anybody online
can access these. And so your interview will become a permanent
record in this collection, not only for researchers but also for
your family. And I think that in itself is a very significant
contribution. Today is December 5th, Wednesday, December 5th,
2018. And the time is 10:10 a.m. To make your story complete, I
want to start with your family, your grandparents, if I may. So
let's start with your grandparents. And tell me briefly where
your grandparents came from on both sides.
>> Diane Honda: OK. So my father's name is Yukihiro Yotsuya. He
went by Yuki Yotsuya. And his parents came from Fukui-ken in
Japan. They-- From what I understand, they first came to
Watsonville. And then Tomezo and [Masa] were married. But they
came to Watsonville and actually, I think, had a couple of
children there in Watsonville in what's known now as Freedom
Hill. And--but those two passed away. And so then they had four
children after-- or actually six children after that. And they
all survived, sorry. My mother's family has four, but anyway. So
they went in-- Somewhere along the line, they met up with a guy
named Kyutaro Abiko or at least a representative of him. And his
dream was to establish Japanese Christian colonies in the United
States. So-- and they were the Yamato Colonies. And so, the
three in California that I know of are in Turlock, and then the
area I grew up in Cortez and Livingston. And->> Carlene Tinker: OK. Now, I understand there was also another
part of the community called Cressey, is that right?
>> Diane Honda: Yes.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK. Was that close to->> Diane Honda: Livingston.
>> Carlene Tinker: I'm sorry?
>> Diane Honda: It's close to Yamato Colony in Livingston.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh, in Livingston.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: So each of these areas were separate Yamato
Colonies?
>> Diane Honda: Yes.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh.
>> Diane Honda: Yes, they were separate. And they were formed in
different ways like the Livingston-Cressey one had people in it
that were maybe brought a little bit of wealth from Japan. The
Turlock one which didn't survive, I'm not sure what their
background was. But the Cortez one was really immigrants. It was
really immigrant-based. They came not with wealth. And they came
as farmers and definitely as a Christian colony because I have
read stories that they-- that the first thing they did was
establish a church. And the-- Kyutaro Abiko or his
representative, because I'm not really sure that they met him
and that he was the one or if he had family representatives that
helped establish these. But he gave two plots of land to the
community. And they were to be for churches and for community
purposes. So the church I attended, the Cortez Presbyterian
Church was on one of those plots of land, which included an
orchard, so that the church could be supported by the orchard.
And the church members supported that. So that was, you know,
that's very unusual->> Carlene Tinker: Oh, yeah.
>> Diane Honda: -- I think. And then it's Presbyterian because
the early Christian, not the early Christian churches but the
churches of the 1900s, they established mission churches. And
they still do of immigrant populations. And so, the Cortez was a
mission church. And Livingston was a Methodist Mission Church.
But ours is a Presbyterian Methodist Church, I mean mission
church. And I don't really think that they were necessarily
particular that they wanted to follow, you know, John Wesley or
whoever, you know, the founders of these churches were as much
as they got support from these larger congregations. And so->> Carlene Tinker: So this was probably, as I remember, the
Yamato Colony established by Abiko started in maybe the early
1900s, is that correct?
>> Diane Honda: That's correct.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah. I think he purchased the land around
1904, is that about right?
>> Diane Honda: OK. It could be. Yeah. Because I-- my father was
born there and that-- oh, no, my father wasn't born there, I
think my parents who are a part of the-- my grandparents who are
part of the 13 original families->> Carlene Tinker: Is that right?
>> Diane Honda: -- what came there. I want to say probably in
the early 1920s or late 1919.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK. And this is the Yotsuya side.
>> Diane Honda: This is the Yotsuya, the Tomezo Yotsuya.
>> Carlene Tinker: Wow. That is fascinating. Is the-- Are the
colonies-- Well, you said one didn't survive. That was the
Turlock one.
>> Diane Honda: Right.
>> Carlene Tinker: But the Cortez one, is it still in existence?
>> Diane Honda: Yes. Definitely it is still in existence. The
church is just now being taken back by the Presbyterian Church.
And to be following a new immigrant population that would like
to occupy it.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK. So, you do-- do you continue to sponsor
immigrants?
>> Diane Honda: OK. So what happened with that church, OK, what
happened with Cortez was after the war, some of the Cortez
people wanted to have, OK, more than just the original 13 came
to Cortez, it attracted more families. And I'm not sure how many
families there are. But my guess would be somewhere between 30
and 40 families.
>> Carlene Tinker: That are still there?
>> Diane Honda: That came, I would say->> Carlene Tinker: Oh, that came.
>> Diane Honda: -- in the 1950s. And they established the
Buddhist church in what was community neighborhood. And that
Buddhist church actually is still surviving with a minister and
with a congregation. Whereas the Presbyterian Church definitely
died out like its members died out.
>> Carlene Tinker: I'll be darned.
>> Diane Honda: So, there might be a few left. But I'm really
talking about a couple->> Carlene Tinker: Wow.
>> Diane Honda: -- and so.
>> Carlene Tinker: So during World War II, what happened to
these people, did they-- did the-- Obviously they weren't
allowed to stay there.
>> Diane Honda: Right.
>> Carlene Tinker: So what happened to those people during the
war?
>> Diane Honda: So what I'm understanding of that, my
understanding of that is that the-- so they were interned but
when they were interned there was a man, Mr. [Cavianni] who-- or
[Cavianni] or—anyway, he helped watch over olive farms.
Possessions were taken care of by this man, Mr. Smith, who own
the Smith Chevrolet. And although they might not have gotten
revenue from their farms, they didn't lose their farms. I don't
know any-- I mean, I know some people who didn't return. And
when they got back, they ended up selling their farms because my
father bought one of those sold farms. But, you know, I recently
read a book by New York Times, I think, author published in this
late-- in the 2000 teens that said that, you know, there were
120,000 Japanese that were emigrated from the West Coast. OK. Or
not emigrated, relocated from the West Coast.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: And he said only about 60,000 came back.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh, is that right?
>> Diane Honda: So if that's the case, then that's why a lot of
people didn't come back. But they did have the ability to sell
their property because I know my dad bought one of those farms->> Carlene Tinker: Right, right
>> Diane Honda: -- that my brother still currently farms.
>> Carlene Tinker: Do you have any brothers or sisters?
>> Diane Honda: Yes, my brother Dennis. And he definitely still
farms. He-- My brother Dennis is six years older than me. So he
was born right like around 1947 or something like that. And he
went to, I guess I'll say this forever. He went to Berkeley, UC
Berkeley during a very tumultuous time. But a very unawareness
time of how important Japanese-American history is. So although
he set out to be an architect, he actually was very interested
in pursuing kind of traditional industries that Japanese were
in. So he started, after he became an architect and was an
architect in San Francisco for a while, he decided to become a
fisherman.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh.
>> Diane Honda: So he fished in the bay area. But he actually
felt like there was such a strong Italian and other ethnic
groups that kind of had a lock on it that he felt like he didn't
have any advantage in that. So he asked my dad if he could come
home and be a farmer. And my father who didn't have the choice
to be a farmer, my father wanted to be an accountant. But he was
in his early 20s when the war happened and, you know, was of
course interned, didn't have the opportunity really to go to
college and didn't-- and actually wanted to join the army right
as World War II started but wasn't allowed to and was actually,
he tells us-- told us a lot what's classified as an enemy alien.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: And that really stuck with him and he was very
angry. So even though he had brothers that were younger that
served in United States army, he did not. And so that also
didn't give him the advantage of having the GI Bill to come
home. And besides that, he was already married by the time the
end of the war came in. And he had, you know, he didn't-- had my
brother Dennis. So it was time to start the farm.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right. So there are only two of you?
>> Diane Honda: Yes.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: Now, getting back to-- let me back track a
little bit to the Yamato Colony and its early inception. Did the
people who lived in this community pool their money? Did they
share the money and share the revenue? To what extent was the
community aspect fostered?
>> Diane Honda: Well, one of the things about the Cortez
community is they also had another parcel that was allotted to
the Cortez Growers Association and this growers association did.
Yes, they pooled everything so they could market their things
together. And that Cortez Growers Association to this day still
exists. And it still-- it has that same focus as they did
before. My brother, who then took over the farm, is part of that
association. And they sell almonds, for example, and instead of
being a single farmer selling to Blue Diamond they sell as that
Cortez Growers Association.
>> Carlene Tinker: Is that right?
>> Diane Honda: Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: Now, is the community now still religiousbased? Would you say they've gotten away from that?
>> Diane Honda: Well, yeah, they've definitely-- There are-Well, first of all, the community is integrated so that it's not
all Japanese and some of the Japanese farms particularly, I want
to say, in the '80s and '90s when the Nisei were retiring sold
their property predominantly to Caucasian people.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh, OK.
>> Diane Honda: So it's-- And those Caucasian people, many of
them belonged to that Cortez Growers Association. But-- And
because of that, their need for an ethnic church was not the
same. I mean, my feelings about an ethnic church is, at the
beginning, Reverend Sab Masada told me that when he grew up in
Bowles that the-- after the war, they went to a Caucasian church
and they weren't welcomed.
>> Carlene Tinker: I see.
>> Diane Honda: They said go back to your own church. So the
first church was needed because nobody wanted, I mean, they
wanted them to be on their own. And the Niseis, it was needed
because I think it gave them a place to heal or at least to be
together after World War II.
>> Carlene Tinker: Well, right.
>> Diane Honda: Then as the third generation came along, the
need to stay in an ethnic-based church wasn't as great.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right, right.
>> Diane Honda: And, although, I still attend an ethnic-based
church myself, I don't think that's-- in fact, I know that's
not-- I mean there's a lot of my friends that do not.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: So->> Carlene Tinker: Yeah. I can see your logic there and-- but at
first when these people were first coming to the United States,
they needed some people to help them, OK. So forming that group,
Abiko was very--forethoughtful in doing that. And as I
understand, he did not actually come to the valley. He just
stayed in San Francisco.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. See, that's why I'm saying I don't know
that they ever met him just, you know, people that helped him or
worked for him or did something of that sort. Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right. I think I told you recently that I
didn't-- when I was doing my little research on Yamato colonies,
I found one in Fred-- in Florida.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Carlene Tinker: And I think the name Yamato means Japan or
was that the ancient name for Japan?
>> Diane Honda: I don't know.
>> Carlene Tinker: But anyway, it’s coincidental but they were- that particular colony was started by a railroad man and his
name was Flagler, and he wanted to develop the land along his
railroad. And so the first people who bit on buying the land
happened to be a Japanese man who had studied in the East Coast
University. So totally coincidental but->> Diane Honda: Yes.
>> Carlene Tinker: -- what a find I thought, oh gosh, I have to
ask Diane about this. OK. So anyway, your parent-- your
grandparents were of the Issei generation?
>> Diane Honda: Right.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK. And they came, I imagined, seeking a
better life, would that be true or am I->> Diane Honda: Yeah. I’m certain that they were seeking a
better life, that they weren't the eldest in the families that-because I actually don't really know a lot about my grandfather
Shamley [assumed spelling], whether he was the eldest, how many
were in that family. But I do know that, you know he-- I'm sure
he came. And I also know that he was very, somehow, became very
Christian and very God-fearing and, you know, my parents will
say, "Oh yes, grandpa's favorite hymn was Rock of Ages" and, you
know, they-- you know, it struck with them, so->> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: And I'm actually very proud of that Christian
history.
>> Carlene Tinker: Your mother-- your grandmother rather, she
came from Kumamoto?
>> Diane Honda: Yes. My mother's parents came from Kumamoto. So
my grandfather-- they came under very different circumstances.
My grandfather arrived on-- after or a day after the San
Francisco earthquake.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh, OK.
>> Diane Honda: So his ship could see the sea burning. So it
moved on to Seattle and-- But eventually he did move his way
back to San Francisco. I guess he wanted to be in that San
Francisco but they unboarded in Seattle. And he didn't have a
wife. He came with his-- he came with a son but not a wife. He
came with a son who was a grown son like 20 years old and
himself. And because I've seen pictures and I said, "Who is
this?" and they said, "Oh, that's uncle Goto [assumed
spelling]." Whatever happened to him, we don't know. And we
don't know whatever happened to him because my grandmother then
was a picture bride and she came and she was 19 years younger
than him.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK. So she was about 20 years younger
something [inaudible].
>> Diane Honda: Yeah, yeah. And, you know, she had reasonably
tragic story about being married and then the husband didn't
like her so he kicked her out and she had to leave a son behind
and-- So there-- Yeah, there was a lot of heartbreak. So, her
leaving to come to America was out of that. So it was a very
different story.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: That they came from the Kumamoto.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right. So your grandfather was at the Yamato
Colony at this point when he sent for her? Is that->> Diane Honda: No, no, no. This is my mother side.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: So they weren't in the part of the Yamato Colony
at all.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh, OK.
>> Diane Honda: My mother side was not. My grandfather became a
laborer in the San Francisco, Santa Rosa area.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. And eventually had a chicken farm but he,
mostly, when he was young and the family was young. Well, he
probably wasn't that young, he was probably in his 40s. But when
the family was young, he worked in apple orchards as a laborer.
>> Carlene Tinker: Got it, OK.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: Now, I'm getting this right now. OK, your
parents, your parents, what was your-- They would be the Nisei?
>> Diane Honda: Right.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK, second generation but first born here in
United States.
>> Diane Honda: Right.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK. On your dad side, he was in the Yamato
Colony.
>> Diane Honda: He was part of the Yamato Colony.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK. All right. So I got that straight. What
was your father's full name?
>> Diane Honda: Yukihiro Yotsuya and, yeah, he was named by this
guy named Mr. Yamaguchi who was-- when I met him was a hundred
years old. And that's just why I remember my dad saying, "This
is the guy that marry-- that named me." But he was born in
Freedom, as I said before and came. And when they were two years
old, for some reason, when he was two years old, the grandfather
was able to take the whole family back to Japan to see the
grandmother's mother.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: Which I felt is a pretty amazing thing to be
able to do. I don't know how we got the money or-- but they
stayed long enough to have a son there. But since the son was so
young, they decided to leave him in Japan and come back. And so,
he was probably born in the 1920s and wasn't able to come to the
United States until the 1950s, because, you know, the Exclusion
Act came in and->> Carlene Tinker: Right.
>> Diane Honda: And I get the Exclusion Act must have excluded
family members.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right.
>> Diane Honda: He fought for Japan. He fought in the army for
Japan. And, you know, when he-- he did eventually come to the
United States and live in the United States but he-- Then after
about 20-- 25 years in the United States went back to Japan.
>> Carlene Tinker: I'll be darned.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: I'll be darned.
>> Diane Honda: So->> Carlene Tinker: So your dad was born when-- what was his
birthday?
>> Diane Honda: July 23rd, 1917.
>> Carlene Tinker: 1917, OK. So, then your mother-- OK. Where
did she come from?
>> Diane Honda: My mother was born in Santa Rosa.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: So-- And she was the third child but she is the
oldest. She was the only that survived past young childhood. I
mean, my mother will tell stories about how my grandmother would
be working in the field and then she would have the baby come in
and have the baby and then she would serve lunch for the field
workers.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh my god.
>> Diane Honda: So, I'm not sure if that's legend or that's
true. But that's the story of how hard a worker. And that's why
babies didn't survive too because, you know, they had a really
hard life.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: Working for apple growers and crushing apples.
And I guess it was dangerous too because the apple crushing
machines and->> Carlene Tinker: OK. What was your mother's maiden name?
>> Diane Honda: Her maiden name was Murakami.
>> Carlene Tinker: Murakami.
>> Diane Honda: So she-- her-- yeah. Her name was Sadame
Murakami and she gave herself the name Mae as she started
school.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK. OK. So when was she born? Your->> Diane Honda: She was born in October 15th, 1919.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK. OK. Now, when the war broke out, let's
say, how many children did they have?
>> Diane Honda: So they had four children. So my aunt Fuji who
became a fashion designer in Los Angeles, which she has herself
a very interesting story. My uncle James Murakami who was the
national JACL president during the rigorous time, which was
quite a tumultuous time actually->> Carlene Tinker: Oh yeah.
>> Diane Honda: -- in the JACL history. And then my uncle George
Murakami who is an architect.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK. So, are any of those children alive?
>> Diane Honda: No, none of them.
>> Carlene Tinker: All of them have passed.
>> Diane Honda: All of them have passed.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK. Now-- OK. When the war broke out,
February, I mean, December 7th, 1941 which is coming-- the
celebration is coming up, where were your parents at the time?
>> Diane Honda: So my mother-- They had both graduated high
school already. And I'm not exactly-- neither one of them have
told me stories about I remember when this happened. Almost all
the stories that I've read had to do with I've read them. But I
do know my mother would say things to me like, you know, it
wasn't that bad, we didn't experience that but then they did go
to camp. And then I found letters after she passed away, from
her friends that were Caucasian outside of camp, that would say
things like, you know, my friends told me I shouldn't write to
you because you're, you know, in a camp. And, you know, that you
are the enemy but I never thought of you as the enemy. And so
then I realized that a lot of it was just probably blocked out.
And again, I had already relate my father's story about how his
anger. I think that's an anger that lived with him his whole
life, that the United States army wouldn't take him. So, had he
gone in before he would have been taken to->> Carlene Tinker: Yeah, he would have been able to participate.
>> Diane Honda: Yes, right.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah, yeah.
>> Diane Honda: But since he volunteered in that 1942 time, he
wasn't able. And then to add injury on that, his family and he
were also put in relocation camp. I mean not relocation, the
assembly center in Merced, so the Merced County Fairgrounds
Assembly Center. And they were-- both of the families were put
into the Amache camp, which is where they met.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh, is that-- oh, I was going to say did-- so
your mother was in Santa Rosa at the time->> Diane Honda: Right.
>> Carlene Tinker: -- when the war broke out, I mean the
Executive Order 9066 and we had to be evacuated. OK. So she came
to the Merced->> Diane Honda: Right. Her family did.
>> Carlene Tinker: -- Assembly Center and your dad was there but
they didn't meet there?
>> Diane Honda: No. They apparently met at the carpool where the
bathrooms are actually at the Amache camp. And so->> Carlene Tinker: Well, coincidentally, I'm the interviewer and
my name-- by the way, I didn't introduce myself. I just thought
of that. My family went to Amache as well. So I know what you're
talking about, the carpool area and so forth. So how old were
your parents at that time when they were in Camp Amache?
>> Diane Honda: Well, they must have been about 20, in the early
20s at this point.
>> Carlene Tinker: Mm-hmm, OK.
>> Diane Honda: You know, it hit them in a time where, you know,
they normally would have been in junior college or progressing
their life after high school. And I think it was a kind of
pretty crucial time of their lives.
>> Carlene Tinker: Definitely.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. And so, my mother worked as a dispatcher
at camp and my father drove a truck from out of camp->> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: -- whenever delivering vegetables or whatever
they did.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah. So, did they-- do you know if they met
right away when we got evacuated?
>> Diane Honda: I think they met pretty close right away because
my father would-- said-- always told the story that he saw my
mother and he said, "Oh, that is the girl I'm going to marry."
And then my mother was, actually, had a boyfriend that was in
the army. So-- or was going to go to the army or something to
do. So, I mean, if-- actually used that story and you think
about what you know, that actually wasn't at the beginning
because those boys weren't allowed to go to the army right away.
They->> Carlene Tinker: No. It was later or->> Diane Honda: Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: -- probably '43, '44-- probably closer to
'44.
>> Diane Honda: You know what, I think that story is not clear
thinking because she then with her brother James, went to
Pennsylvania and took advantage of the Quakers who allowed
people to come out of camp to either go to school or work. And
so, I would think that she did that by '43 or '44. So I don't
know that her story was accurate.
>> Carlene Tinker: Now, that's an interesting aside. Let's take
a second and talk about what she did in Pennsylvania. What-- did
she go to school at that point?
>> Diane Honda: OK. So, my uncle, the one who became the JACL
president, he went to high school. He finished high school
outside of camp. And then she worked in an office and-- as a
house girl. They were both house boy and girl for a family in
Pennsylvania.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK. OK. And then, how long did they stay
there before they came back to California?
>> Diane Honda: They stayed there until the end of the war.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: Because they didn't come back to camp ever.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK. OK.
>> Diane Honda: They came back to San Francisco.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK. And also I may interject here, during
World War II, when World War II was declared, this Executive
Order 9066 was signed by Franklin Delano Roosevelt, our
president. And that declared the West Coast as a military zone.
And that's why we got sent--They said, OK, by military a
necessity, never mentioning Japanese, but intending Japanese
that we had to be moved from the West Coast because we were a
threat, a potential threat. And so, just like Diane here and
myself, we were moved to assembly centers. She went to Merced. I
went to Santa Anita.
>> Diane Honda: Well, my parents did.
>> Carlene Tinker: Your parents did.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: And-- I'm sorry. And then I got sent to
Amache, which is one of the 10 relocation camps and that's in
South Eastern Colorado. And her parents met in Amache, same camp
that I just referred to. So, I just wanted to clarify that. I
didn't specify that earlier. Now, your dad was very bitter I
think from what you're saying. OK. Now, do you know anything
about the loyalty questions number 27 and 28?
>> Diane Honda: Yes, yes.
>> Carlene Tinker: Do you remember what they are?
>> Diane Honda: One was, are you loyal to the emperor of Japan
or do you foreswear loyalty? And then the second one was about,
would you be willing to serve in the army with-- or in the
military to-- against the Japanese, which is kind of an odd
question for all but boys in their 20s I think, yes.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right.
>> Diane Honda:
But.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah, especially, when they were forbidden at
the beginning of the war.
>> Diane Honda: Right, right.
>> Carlene Tinker: To be->> Diane Honda: Right.
>> Carlene Tinker: -- and that's-- and to serve->> Diane Honda: Which I think angered my father more but it
didn't anger him to say no. He did answer yes to all the
questions. And my parents, my parent-- my-- all my relatives
answered yes to all those questions.
>> Carlene Tinker: Is that right?
>> Diane Honda: Yes.
>> Carlene Tinker: Is that right? Yeah, I-- you know, come to
think of it. I don't know what my parents, you know. We never
talked about it and, unfortunately, both of them are deceased,
you know. So I haven't a chance to->> Diane Honda: Yeah. We talked about it because there our
neighboring father-- neighboring farmer. Mr. Kubo, he had
answered no, no. And so, she never explained to me really what
that was about. But as a child, I kind of felt like->> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: -- maybe that isn't a good thing. But, I mean,
the farmer was always-- Mr. Kubo was always very nice to me and
always spent time after I get off the bus telling me stories and
talking to me as he was irrigating his land. And so, I never
really understood the animosity of that.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah. Now, so your mom and dad, I mean, your
mom didn't move to the Valley. She moved to Santa Rosa when she
came back, right?
>> Diane Honda: Mm-hmm.
>> Carlene Tinker: She and her brother. And then your dad did
come back to->> Diane Honda: Yes,
>> Carlene Tinker: -- the Yamato Colony and->> Diane Honda: Right.
>> Carlene Tinker: -- and Cortez.
>> Diane Honda: Yes.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: And he purchased his own farm which was next
door to his father's farm.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: And then he asked to marry my mother. And so, my
mother said OK.
>> Carlene Tinker: How did he do that? Did he write to her for a
while?
>> Diane Honda: No, he would go to visit her in Santa Rosa and
developed-- Well, he had friends because, you know, from camp
that went to-- and that had gone back to Santa Rosa too. And so- and we, as children, we go visit those friends on our way to
Santa Rosa.
>> Carlen Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: And we're always told that that's where he
stayed and he would visit. And, you know, this is-- or in the
1940s. So, my grandfather determined that this was a nice enough
boy, so she should just marry him. His mother-- his-- her
younger sister had married a young man that lived in Los
Angeles.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: And so, my mother did told me that she felt like
she's-- it's time that she should be married, so.
>> Carlene Tinker: So, how old were they when they got married?
>> Diane Honda: I think->> Carlene Tinker: What year was that?
>> Diane Honda: OK. That's a challenging question. OK. She must
have gotten married in 194-- OK, '54, '48. They must have got
married 1947.
>> Carlene Tinker: Forty seven to->> Diane Honda: So, that would make my dad near 30 and my mom
28.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh, 20?
>> Diane Honda: Twenty-eight.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh, 28.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK, OK.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah. So-- and then they had-- your brother,
when did he get born?
>> Diane Honda: He was born in '48, the next year.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh, the next year.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: And then when is your birthday?
>> Diane Honda: In 1954.
>> Carlene Tinker: Nineteen fifty four.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: And at that point, the Exclusion Act was
rescinded and then you're-- one of the relative, somebody, the
former son-- first son was able to come over.
>> Diane Honda: Came back. I think in 1951 was the McCarran Act?
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: And that's when the Issei could become citizens
and the Exclusion Act was lifted and so my uncle came back and I
was there. I would-- I don't remember that. Actually, what
happened in 1954, the year I was born, is my father-- my
father's mother died before the war. So she didn't go to camp.
He was a teenager when she passed. Complications of diabetes, I
don't know. I really don't know how she-- but she died pretty
young. And her youngest child was only probably seven or eight
years old.
>> Carlene Tinker: Wow.
>> Diane Honda: And then her-- my grandfather died the year I
was born. And they said that my uncle Eiji came back to see him.
And he had diabetes, I know. And so this-- the only reason I
know about that story too is my uncle Asaji who is my father's,
one of the younger brothers, and my auntie Fuji. My auntie Fuji
was carrying me and she was from LA and a fashion designer.
She's wearing very probably high stilettos at the funeral. And
she was carrying me and I guess stumbled and almost fell into
the grave but my uncle grabbed this-- grabbed her and pushed her
off to the ground to the side. So the story, for me, is
obviously I was a baby, was that my uncle Asaji saved my life
and my auntie Fuji risked my life. So it's a funny story.
>> Carlene Tinker: That's a cute story.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah, but that's also how I know that my
grandfather passed away at that time.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah. So, you basically grew up in Cortez. Is
that correct?
>> Diane Honda: Yes, I did.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: I grew up in Cortez.
>> Carlene Tinker: So what was life like for you, did you help
in the fields? Did you do any of that kind of stuff or were you
not a-- did you just stay at home and help mom or what was life
like then?
>> Diane Honda: You know, I think life there was pretty
sheltered and pretty cool. First of all, we grew up, you know,
when Hillary Clinton talks about it takes a village, you know.
And when I look back, it really was a village of people because
those Yamato people that had come back, the farmers that-- I
told you already about Mr. Kubo who would tell me stories. There
was a Mr. Sugiura who would just come by and take me for rides
on his little moped thing that-- around the farms. And so my mom
worked at a fabric store. She really only worked there four days
a week for a probably about five hours a day but, you know,
Monday, Tuesday, and then when-- Thursday, Friday but we felt
like she worked all the time. You know, when you think about,
it's not all the time. But-- anyway, so she-- because she
worked, you know, I would come home from school and I would help
like-- I called it pick up sticks but I don't know. It was
somehow picking up these twigs that are pruned and then they
burn them or they do something with them. I mean, I did stuff
but I don't know what they were for. So a lot-- at lot of times
they would throw me on the tractor. Really literally I was about
six or seven and throw me on the tractor and they just say just
steer it. And then-- and it would go real slow and then by the
time they finished whatever row, they would jump back on and
they would stop it for me. So, you know, it doesn't seem very
safe. But anyway->> Carlene Tinker: And you were only six years old?
>> Diane Honda: Yeah, I was only six years old and-- But, you
know, my mom-- dad I remember-- I remember this one very vividly
because he put me on the tractor and he said drive it to your
uncle's farm which was-- I was probably old, I was like eight.
But I really, you know, I had to-- and I was driving to the
farm. So I didn't drive on any roads. So I was driving through
the farms and I kind of knew how to get there. But the thing
was, is once I got there, I don't really know how to stop the
tractor. And so, I thought, hmm, what should I do? Should I just
keep driving around or should I and I-- and so I saw this tree
and I thought, "Well, if I hit that tree, I wonder if it'll just
stop." You know, and it was a pretty big tree and it did. And I
was going really slow so it did. And then my father got there he
goes, "What are you doing? Just turn off the key." Well, I
didn't even know where the key was. And then to stop it, you
know, there was this bar on the left side that I don't even know
what. I don't think it was a brake but it did slow it down. I
would have to actually literally get off the seat and then stand
with two feet on it to even get it to kind of close to stopping.
>> Carlene Tinker: Wow.
>> Diane Honda: So, you know, it is amazing that I didn't die or
something.
>> Carlene Tinker: Well, what was the crop that your dad was
growing at that point?
>> Diane Honda: He grew peaches and walnuts->> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: -- as I grew up and then he eventually pulled
out the peaches and put almonds in that.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah, that became the cash crop.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah, yeah. And so for the peaches I helped,
they put up props, you know, when the-- it's too much. So I
would help drive so that they put-- my brother and my cousin
would put the props out. I would help-- oh, I would help in the
walnuts by picking up the ones that didn't make it into the
rows. I had to pick it up and throw them into the rows. My
brother will tell you if he ever sees is that I never did hard
labor. I mean, you know, like he was doing props and he was, you
know, raking and stuff but my job was to, you know, obviously
you can tell and to pick up things, to throw sticks in places
and-- But, I mean, it was-- oh, and then to sort peaches in the
summer time.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right. Oh, sure.
>> Diane Honda: So->> Carlene Tinker: Now did you go to school in Cortez or where
was school?
>> Diane Honda: OK. So there were two schools. One was called
this Vincent School, just two of them, schoolhouse. So first,
second, and third grade I went to Vincent School.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: And there were grades one through four in the
one class and then five through eight in the other class. And it
was, you know, it was a small country school and then my parents
felt like they wanted me to go to a big school where they had
like one grade per class. And that was Ballico which was just-it was kind of adjacent. It was a little bit further. For
Vincent, I had to walk, I mean, I had to ride a bike to school.
So I was, again, six years old riding this bike to school. And
my cousins were there but they were all seven and eighth
graders. And so I was the only one in my age group and I just
remember pedaling, being really far behind and they were way in
front of me. But then I always felt like I had a smaller bike.
But I also wasn't like super athletic. So maybe if I was this
super athletic person, I would just try and go really fast and
catch up with them but, anyway. And then once they graduated
also I think my parents wanted me somewhere else. And so the
school bus for Ballico, for some reason, came to the end of my
road. So I could just walk to the end of the road, get on the
school bus and go. And also for me, it was a change because
Ballico had a music program. So I could play in the band and,
you know, and that became an important, actually, to me because
I was musically oriented. So->> Carlene Tinker: Right, right. Where did you go to high
school?
>> Diane Honda: So we went to Livingston High School.
>> Carlene Tinker: Livingston.
>> Diane Honda: And technically, where my brother lives and
where my father's farm was, was in the Turlock High School
District. But Livingston High School had more Japanese-Americans
in it, a lot. I mean, like my class was probably only about 200
kid-- no, I-- less, 150 kids and there were about 20 of us that
were Japanese-Americans.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: So that's why in many ways I felt like I kind of
had an ideal-- because I was very sheltered and I kind of-- I
think I grew up with too much self-confidence since that. I
thought that Japanese kids were the smartest. And I thought we
were, you know, did the best in various things and, you know,
and so I just thought that's the group I belonged to.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: Well, just the opposite, I was always like
one or two of a huge class and so I had a different
interpretation. So in Cortez, how many people lived in Cortez at
that time? And how many live there now?
>> Diane Honda: That's a very good question. I mean, if you
figure in my class alone in Cortez because that 20 combines
Livingston and Cortez. There were eight of-- one to five. Yeah,
there were eight of us that were just my age in Cortez. So, you
know, and they all had brothers and sisters and the Cortez area
was really thriving at that time. So I'm going to guess a couple
hundred people, I mean people, maybe 30 families, or something
of that sort.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah. OK. So now how many you think are
there?
>> Diane Honda: Well, it all depends if you consider just
Japanese-Americans. Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: Everybody, everybody.
>> Diane Honda: Mm-hmm, I'm not really sure.
>> Carlene Tinker: Is it larger?
>> Diane Honda: No, it's not larger because what happened is
like, for example, my brother, he farms what was my uncle's
ranch and his ranch. And then, you know, so people are not where
there was one family per ranch, that one family will have two or
three of those ranches.
>> Carlene Tinker: I see. I see.
>> Diane Honda: So there has a->> Carlene Tinker: And then he also lives in Livingston, right?
>> Diane Honda: No. My brother lives on my father's farm.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh he does. OK.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah, yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: So-- But-- and he is still involved to the
Cortez, of course. And then some of the people there in Cortez
have bought three or four or five farms.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: So->> Carlene Tinker: So, yeah, I could see->> Diane Honda: Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: -- the ratio of people to the number of
farms.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah, yeah, a nice place.
>> Carlene Tinker: I see. Getting back to this feeling that you
were kind of superior, that's kind of-- that's fascinating. That
was sort of insulating and also->> Diane Honda: Yes.
>> Carlene Tinker: -- as far as the reaction of other people to
you, you didn't really feel any prejudice.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: I'm assuming.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. Right. The only->> Carlene Tinker: Is that true?
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. The only time I remember, our neighbor's
uncle would come from San Francisco and he would take us to the
local pool. And when we went to the local pool which was in
Turlock, I remember we were all-- and there were three-- there
were probably seven or eight of us there. But I remember a boy,
you know, doing the chin chin China man and, you know, doing his
eyes and stuff. And I just thought, why is-- I mean I knew it
felt bad. It made me feel bad but I didn't go to school with a
majority white population. In fact, the-- where I went to school
with a lot of those kids, their parents worked for our parents.
Or they were, you know, they were not necessarily-- they were-if they were farmers, they weren't-- they were equal
economically. Whereas in Turlock that was-- I mean it is still a
city. I mean, still a kind, you know, a town but I think that
there were people that were maybe sons of dentists or doctors
or, you know, other kinds of occupations that maybe perhaps felt
that they were superior to the farmers.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK, OK.
>> Diane Honda: So that could be an economic superiority as
well.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right.
>> Diane Honda: But-- yeah. And that was the only time is when-you're right, when I left my little insulated area. And by the
time I got to high school, like I remember going to honor bands
because I play Clarinet but at the same time too, at that point
in time, you hold your own place. You know, I am the first
clarinet or whatever, right?
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah, yeah.
>> Diane Honda: And you interact with everybody in that economy
so to speak.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right, right.
>> Diane Honda: So->> Carlene Tinker: Yeah. I'm thinking right away when you talked
about your own kind athletes, you know, black American->> Diane Honda: That's right.
>> Carlene Tinker: African-Americans maybe when they're on a
team with other blacks, OK. They feel very comfortable but then
if they're out in a society where they have to compete in other
ways, maybe it's not as comfortable and they experience a lot
more racism and so forth. So anyway, getting back to Cortez,
when did you->> Diane Honda: Yeah, OK. Yeah, that's fine though.
>> Carlene Tinker: All right. OK. We were asking you about your- leaving Cortez and you went to school. You went to college,
OK. Where did you go to school?
>> Diane Honda: I went to UCLA.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK. Why did you go there instead of Berkeley?
I remember your brother went to Berkeley.
>> Diane Honda: My brother went to Berkeley. My uncles went to
Berkeley. Everybody went to Berkeley. I do have one cousin that
went to UCLA for a couple of years and then went to Berkeley.
So-- But, you know my aunt had lived in Los Angeles. I felt like
I liked the weather there. I felt-- I don't know, I just felt
like I'd like the atmosphere there and I am really-- that was a
good choice.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: It was a good choice in one way in that-- it was
a good choice in that LA was a place I liked being but as you
know that I grew up in a very small insulated place. And when I
went to UCLA, it was very, very large. And many times thought to
myself, why did I come to this place to be a little fish in this
huge pond and where could I make a difference? And my education,
at the time I didn't realize it but when I think back to it was
really woefully underdone compared to. So my good friend went to
a school, suburban school in San Diego. And then I went to
Livingston High School and although, you know, it wasn't that it
was inferior but, you know, even the things we read were not
anywhere close to what the other kids had already been exposed
to. So then when they're in college and they're analyzing
whatever, I was a sociology major, analyzing whatever they read,
they had already read a lot of things that I hardly even knew,
so-- And I remember being in discussion groups and as you can
tell, I talk a lot. And people are saying, well, you don't talk
because you're holding back and don't want to share what your
knowledge is, you know, like I was doing something bad. But I
literally was not talking because I had nothing to say.
>> Carlene Tinker: All right.
>> Diane Honda: Because I had never been around people that
analyzed and talked in that manner because that's not the way
the education I had in Livingston was like.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right. So that was a big, big step for you.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. It was a big step for me although I will
say my predecessors like other people from Livingston, they went
to Harvard and Yale and Stanford and all kinds of places. So, I
mean, it's not like, you know, I was the-- you know, it wasn't
that great. But anyway, I'm just saying that it was really quite
a shock and->> Carlene Tinker: Right.
>> Diane Honda: When I think back, maybe had I gone to a junior
college first and then gone on to UCLA. I mean, I was successful
there. I finished in four years and I got a teaching grant which
also-- You know, it wasn't like I fell out or anything of that
sort. But it was just very different. But again, at UCLA, I was
insulated with a huge Sansei population.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh, is that right?
>> Diane Honda: Yes.
>> Carlene Tinker: How was that, Diane?
>> Diane Honda: Well, there was-- well, first of all, there is-I don't know what it's called. It's a different acronym for UCLA
with the University of Caucasians Lost amongst Asians. So there
were a lot of Asian people at UCLA. And there was a huge-- well,
I thought it was. There was a considerable Japanese-American
Sansei population--
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh, OK.
>> Diane Honda: To the point where, and this kind of sounds bad
now. But in Powell Library, which was their undergrad library,
there was a room they called it the Yellow Room. And that's
where all the Jap-- specifically Japanese-Americans not Asian.
Japanese-Americans would go to study. We had our own bowling
league. We had our own bible studies. We had our own, you know,
that were just predominantly Japanese-American Sanseis.
>> Carlene Tinker: I'll be darned. Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: So again, I was kind of insulated in that way.
>> Carlene Tinker: Well, how did you find this group? Did you
have-- how did you-- did you have friends at UCLA so that they
introduced you to these groups or did you just sort of wander in
to this Yellow Room or?
>> Diane Honda: That's a good question.
>> Carlene Tinker: How did that happen?
>> Diane Honda: I-- That's a good question. I did not have
friends that went to UCLA. I went to UCLA really on my own.
There was one Jewish gal from Livingston that was there but I
really didn't associate much with her. She was older. I think-OK. So I became friends with this gal, Janet [Sakai] in-- from
Gilroy area. In fact, she lived in a house that was the Japanese
exhibit hall for the 1930 World Fair, something like that.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh my gosh.
>> Diane Honda: And that was her house. And that still exist
there in Gilroy and-- But she was very active in YBA and so she
had a lot of friends in that YBA and then from that grew other.
I mean, there were actually Japanese-American sorority and
fraternities also. But it was during the '70s and that was kind
of like not cool to be like-- at least in my mind, cool to be
part of a fraternity and sorority, you know. My mother's vision
of me going to college is wearing dresses and, you know, not
high heel shoes but, you know, fancy shoes. But my vision was
wearing corduroy pants and t-shirts and a corduroy jacket or
some sort of, you know, very-- And my brother had gone to
Berkeley and when my brother was at Berkeley you know, he really
led the way for the formation of Asian-American classes. And so,
by the time I got there, the unrest on campuses was done. It was
197- fall of '72. And so, those classes were established. So I
could take the history of Japanese-American internment or the
history of, you know, the Filipinos or any. There was a-- not
thriving but beginning to thrive Japanese-American.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: I mean-- excuse me, Asian-American studies
program.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right.
>> Diane Honda: So, I am sure I met people through those->> Carlene Tinker: Right.
>> Diane Honda: -- venues as well. And maybe didn't consciously
seek out but really gravitated for whatever reason. And I don't
feel like I gravitated to that community because I was rejected
by another. You know, I just felt-- I guess I just gravitated to
that community because when you go back into my history and my
daughter will say well, how many people that were not of your
ethnicity were you friends with in college? Not a lot. Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: Well, you mentioned YBA. What was-- what's
that stand for?
>> Diane Honda: The Young Buddhist Association.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: It was a->> Carlene Tinker: OK, OK.
>> Diane Honda: -- social. I mean, it was part of the Buddhist
church but it was also a social group. Also, I had gone to
camps, Japanese-American Christian camps as well. So I knew some
people actually from those places.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK. OK. So, when you went to UCLA, it doesn't
sound like you had any problems dealing with non-Japanese
people. And you-- obviously, you have them in your classes.
>> Diane Honda: Yes, yes.
>> Carlene Tinker: And so, you didn't have any feelings of
rejection or->> Diane Honda: No.
>> Carlene Tinker: -- people or men.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: So, it was--
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. And even when I say that so [inaudible], I
mean, I should have been really felt-- I was very humbled in
those classes where I didn't feel like I was prepared. But I
didn't feel bad or I didn't feel like I was less then. Of
course, I don't know if that was humbled means. But anyway, I
felt-- I didn't feel like I didn't belong. How is that? I didn't
feel like I didn't belong.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right. OK. Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: Because I felt like well, they accepted me, so->> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: I must belong here. And I saw a lot of people
from the peripheral but I didn't expect to be part of their-you know, UCLA is such a big place. I remember my roommate who
was Japanese-American from Gardena. So, that's another place
where I'd meet a lot of people. We would go before our music
class and see Mark Harmon who is a movie star now and/or a TV
star now. And he would be-- he was the UCLA quarterback. And he
would be really be living and telling his friends about the game
and we would watch him and he was so good looking, you know. We
just sat and watched him. He was also older. I mean he was-- now
that you think back about three years older but I mean, you
know, but seemed older. So when I watched them, I didn't think,
gosh, I wish I was part of that social set. I just watched him
enjoying the fact that he goes to my school and-- But I didn't
feel like I couldn't belong. I just felt comfortable. I think
that's actually-- I felt comfortable with the social set I was
in.
>> Carlene Tinker: Well, that's-- that's fine. Yeah. You
answered my question. Now, when did you actually move back to
the valley and how did you happen to come back? Why did you-did you go back to Cortez or did you come to Fresno?
>> Diane Honda: So, one thing when I was an undergraduate at
UCLA, I was getting my laundry out of my dryer and a car pulled
up. It was a subterranean garage and a man with a ski mask came
out with a knife and, you know, tried to pull me into the car
and-- But luckily I was born with really loud voice. And I just
start screaming. I just-- I remember cowering and just screaming
and screaming and screaming. And then he went away. And that
experience actually made me want to-- after I graduated from
UCLA to go back to Turlock for a little while.
>> Carlene Tinker: Wow.
>> Diane Honda: So, I did get my teaching credential at UCLA so
that when I went back to Turlock I could-- or to live with my
parents in Cortez-- I could get a job pretty easily because the
people coming out of schools were graduating from [Stanislaus]
State or, you know, I mean, I was a curiosity. Well, she
graduated from UCLA. And then there was this gal, Madeline
Hunter, who was real big in education at the time and she was a
UCLA professor. And although she was never my UCLA professor, it
opened the door. So, I got a job in Modesto at a junior high
school there. And I moved back home for three years.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: And then, after three years of living at home,
my father, I think got tired of me or something. He said, I
think you need to go back to LA and start your life. So, I mean,
when I think back now that I have children-- a child that's
older than that, you know, when you graduate at 21 or 2, you are
pretty young and I did. It was kind of scary what had happened
to me. So I did kind of want to just go back to my little cocoon
for a little while. And then my dad at the age of 25, I guess, I
was at that point says, you know, go away again. He's not really
go away. So, I went back to LA and started teaching in Los
Angeles.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK. And then, is that when you married and
found your husband?
>> Diane Honda: Yes. I met my husband. He was-- he had also come
to Los Angeles. He came from by way of Monterey to Fresno State
as his college of choice and then to LA where he had a jazz
band. But he-- and eventually, he what-- he wanted to get his
master's degree so he could teach college at USC.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: So, I met him when he was substitute teaching.
And so-- So I guess it's good thing he sent me off because I met
him fairly quickly after I got sent off. And then, and we
established a life there for probably about 12 years or so
before we came to Fresno. And coming to Fresno, going back to
the valley really did have to do with wanting to be closer to my
parents. I had a child by that point. And I felt like we both
did not grow up in LA and we have this feeling that bringing up
a child in LA meant that that child was going to have to be
street smart very early. And we wanted her to be a little bit
not that way because we weren't that way. And so-- and our
friend of Larry's that he went to college with here said, you
know, I have a great position. Buchanan High School is just
opening up. So that junior high director is moving to the high
school, come interview at Alta Sierra. And, you know, we had
taught in Los Angeles. And in Los Angeles, you know, the schools
really ran on bare minimums, I mean, bare minimums. And when I
came here to Fresno, he accepted the job at Alta Sierra and then
I went to Bullard and my-- and where I met you. And-- but my
first day at Bullard or actually maybe school hadn't even
started yet. But I realized that they had shop classes and
clubs. And I just started to cry because I said, you know, those
kids I taught in LA, they deserve to go to a school like this.
But they didn't get that.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: And, anyway, so-- and then I taught at Bullard
for 22 years or so.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah. So, I understand you recently retired,
is that correct?
>> Diane Honda: Mm-hmm.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah, yeah. Well, that's a good transition. I
mean, what do you do now?
>> Diane Honda: OK. So, well, I do want to double back and say
that it was a good thing to raise our child here in Fresno. She
went to Clovis West High School and Clovis West High School is a
very integrated school. I mean, not necessarily economically but
it is a little economically, but more racially.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right.
>> Diane Honda: There's a lot. It's so-- She, in some ways,
didn't grow up exactly the way I did. But she grew up in that
kind of atmosphere.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right.
>> Diane Honda: And a little bit naïve to the world but not as
much as me.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right.
>> Diane Honda: And I think had a pretty good education going
into college.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right.
>> Diane Honda: So--
>> Carlene Tinker: Now, so she would be the fourth generation,
Yonsei. Now, did she have much interaction with your parents
when they were alive?
>> Diane Honda: You know what, she really didn't because they
died. She was six when my mom died and eight when my dad passed
away. And so, by the time my mom passed away, my dad was kind of
sickly and so, there wasn't a lot of interactions. So, no, she
really didn't have a whole lot of interaction with older people.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah. So, your story is going to be very
important to her when she sees this, right, this interview?
>> Diane Honda: We'll see. And, by the way, she-- my husband is
a-- Yonsei because her-- his father is a Sansei and his
grandmother is a Nisei.
>> Carlene Tinker: I'll be darned.
>> Diane Honda: So, she's kind of sort of a little bit Gosei.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah. Oh, she's half and half.
>> Diane Honda: A little bit Gosei. Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: So what I'm understanding, Diane, you grew up
in a very small community. Didn't really experience any racism
because you were insulated, you were the dominant group to say
this-- to say the least. And then, when you got to college, you
were protected in another way because you joined organizations
that were principally of your own group. OK. So, it sounds like
you've been kind of I think protected?
>> Diane Honda: Mm-hmm. In many ways all the way->> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: All the way through and even in LA Unified.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: There was quite a strong Japanese-American. And
actually, when it wasn't was once I got to Bullard.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah, yeah.
>> Diane Honda: You know.
>> Carlene Tinker: Well. And when you were at Bullard, I didn't
see any problems with, you know, dealing with the dominant group
if you want to call the Caucasians the dominant.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah, right. Well. And I was 40 by then too. So,
I mean, you know, you kind of have an established life that you
bring with, you know. And I have been a teacher for a long time.
I do know that when I first-- what I felt at Bullard actually
was that they treated me like I was a young teacher. So, you
know, they knew I was newly hired but I was actually almost 40,
I'd actually started teaching since I was 22 since I had almost
20 years. But I remember being in a conference and them saying
something like well, you know, I knew you're a young teacher. I
felt-- I'm going->> Carlene Tinker: Well, thanks for the compliment.
>> Diane Honda: I haven't-- and the other thing is because I
found in Fresno, many women raise children and then came back to
teaching. So, they might be 40 but they might have just started
teaching five years previously.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right. Absolutely.
>> Diane Honda: So, as opposed to my career, it wasn't like
that, so.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right. Now, in-- looking at your own
background and your own history, are you really concerned or not
concerned? But are you interested in finding out about your
background, about your grandparents? Do you ever go back to
Japan? Do you go to Amache, the relocation camp where your mom
and dad met?
>> Diane Honda: OK. So, you know, my brother is awakening of
this is what our history of us about. It was actually pretty
important to me in the sense that I was about 12 or 13 when that
happened. And as much as I probably-- you know, I mean, I really
do look up to my big brother probably since birth. And
everything he did and even though he-- my parents weren't
necessarily really happy with him when he suddenly grew his hair
long and went protesting and those kinds of things. And I didn't
necessarily say, oh, my gosh, I want to do that myself because I
saw the grief that it brought into the family. But I did glean
the importance of what he was doing. So, that made me actually
very interested and aware. So, throughout college, I did do
papers regarding Japanese-Americans and then this woman Helen
[Yuge] who was a friend from church who was probably in her 60s
but I really thought she was very old when I was in my 20s. She
had cancer. She had terminal cancer. And when she was, you know,
among the last times I visited her, she said, you know, Diane,
don't let anyone forget our story. Don't let anyone forget the
story of how we struggled to make it in America, how we got put
in camps, how we struggled and, you know, what happened to us.
And so, that-- those words have always rung through. So, there's
a couple of things that I did in my earlier year. So, when I was
in-- when I was teaching at-- in LA, I was the yearbook teacher.
And so, while I was the yearbook teacher, one of my-- one good
who-- person who became my good friend, [Konnie] Chrislock she
said, I showed her this yearbook when my father-in-law had
passed away that was from Manzanar. And but the thing about this
Manzanar yearbook, not only was it a yearbook of an internment
camp but it was also the pictures were done by Ansel Adams. He's
the famous black-and-white photographer.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right.
>> Diane Honda: So, she saw that and then she got bigger picture
and said, you know, Diane, you should work on reproducing this.
If you can get the money to reproduce this or put kind of some
seed money, she goes, I can get Herff Jones, the yearbook
company, to buy in and maybe get us to reproduce this and
distribute this in some way. So I said, OK. And it happened to
be that that was right after redress had-- they have all the
checks had been issued and it was about five or six years later
and the Civil Liberties grants for teachers were coming out. So,
I applied for a grant for I think, it was almost $40,000.
>> Carlene Tinker: Wow.
>> Diane Honda: And to reproduce these yearbooks and I got it.
>> Carlene Tinker: Wow.
>> Diane Honda: And so->> Carlene Tinker: Yeah, you have it->> Diane Honda: I brought it.
>> Carlene Tinker: -- with you?
>> Diane Honda: Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: So this is the reproduced copy which my friend
and I worked on. And so, the original copy was cardboard. So,
one really odd thing is that this font is called ribbon. And we
had-- and this was put together in 1990s. And I had hired my
yearbook editor from Bullard to come help me to put this
together. It was the year that Princess Diana passed away. So,
whatever year that was. And we were looking a computer to find a
font that looked like this font. And nowadays, you can just go
on internet, you can find anything. But in those old days, all I
had was my computer and then he was working upstairs in what was
our office at the time. And he said, "Ms. Honda, come up here,
come here." And he found the exact font. The exact font that was
on the original book was on my computer and that's weird. But
anyway, so this is recreated. We took a picture. And again-- and
we didn't have the idea of using a computer where you can use
your phone and take the picture. I mean, it was the process of
doing this was taking a picture, digitalizing the picture, keep
putting it into-- And then that's what they did even with each
of the pages in here were all-- there were done with real
photographs.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right.
>> Diane Honda: So, Toyo Miyatake's son, Archie, was still young
at the-- younger at the time. And he had a lot of these pictures
in a file.
>> Carlene Tinker: Wow.
>> Diane Honda: So, he printed these pictures out for me and we
were able to reproduce->> Carlene Tinker: Oh, my god.
>> Diane Honda: -- the book from original pictures and then
Herff Jones actually took-- I mean, if we were to do this now,
it would be so much easier because you could even just PDF the
pages, enhance them. But the way this was done was really in an
old fashioned manner. And so, all-- we recreated all the type,
all of the type we reprinted it and retyped it all and-- But it
all looks authentic to the original because we found this font.
>> Carlene Tinker: Isn't that amazing?
>> Diane Honda: So->> Carlene Tinker: That's so impressive.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. So, it was very amazing. And then what I
did too with the grant money was I-- OK. We're on. So, then the
section here, I was able-- I had a meeting and was able to meet
with all of the editors that were originally from this book. And
they had all tested out of real English or whatever and so got
to work on this book. And, you know, they talked about yearbook
the way kids talk about yearbook, it was their club. They would
stay late. They would, you know, and so I-- I had the picture of
when they were in high school and then this is their picture at
that point in time, was current. And this particular man, Reggie
Shikami is the father of Debbie Ikeda who was the president of
the Clovis Community College. So->> Carlene Tinker: Oh, my goodness.
>> Diane Honda: So, there's a valley tie in. Yeah. And then the
other thing is of all of these, I think there were 14 editors or
14 people. There was only one person who had passed away, at
this point, even though it was a lot later. And then, there's a
great story about Ralph Lazo who went to camp just because his
friends did. But he was actually Mexican and-- Mexican and
Irish. And they didn't really discover he wasn't-- he wasn't
Asian until he volunteered to go to the army. And so, anyway.
And then like I said in here, there are many-- this Helen
Bannai, she was the wife of an assemblyman, I mean.
>> Carlene Tinker: Wow.
>> Diane Honda: They became very, very successful kinds of
people.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>>Diane Honda: And then I did an article on Toyo Miyatake, a
background about the camp itself. And then this is the redress
letter that made it all possible that was signed by->> Carlene Tinker: Awesome.
>> Diane Honda: -- George Bush actually.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh, my goodness.
>> Diane Honda: This was signed by George Bush which, by the
way, today is his funeral.
>> Carlene Tinker: How timely, huh.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. Today is his funeral.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah, coincidentally.
>> Diane Honda: And then I just told a little story about how I
came to do this here.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: And so, it's now been 20 years ago since I
published this book.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right.
>> Diane Honda: Herff Jones did make good on their offer and
they distributed this around the nation, as well as I myself
sold probably about 5000 copies just to people who-- I mean, for
a while these boxes were my living room furniture. I just
stacked them up like a sofa and put a blanket over it.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: Anyway. And so, I know that these books are out.
They're out of publication now but if anybody wants to see it,
they can get a PDF of it on, you know. In fact, they have PDFs
of all the high school yearbooks. And, it's either in Densho or
one of those.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh, OK.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: The Densho is the organization up in Seattle,
right?
>> Diane Honda: Oh, OK. Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: Is the collection of these materials->> Diane Honda: Yeah, online.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah, online, yeah.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: How about that other one? What is the other
album that you're on?
>> Diane Honda: OK. This is a personal book because actually you
were the one that told me about going to Amache and
participating in a dig. And so, you lived there for a week and
then you-- you know, you get to experience. I mean, for me, I
just want to experience, well, what would it be like to live
there for a week? What was the weather like? What was-- I mean
and-- and then my nephew-- Well, actually it's my cousin's son.
I didn't know I come from a big family. There were six. And, all
those six people that survived, they all had multiple amounts of
children and grandchildren. And this is the grand-- great
grandson.
>> Diane Honda: Great grandson…Yeah, the great grandson of my
father's oldest sister. And he was the only one that would go
with me. I asked this big family party and he just said, oh,
I'll go with you Auntie Diane, well, OK. So he was 17 at the
time. He’s a Boy Scout. And so, he had-- you know, there was the
Boy Scout thing that they have there and he participated in
that. He's young so when they needed to whack bushes apart, you
know, he could whack bushes apart. I mean, you know, right
because there were things I did not do. And he used the GPS
monitor, you know, to find things that were underneath or
actually GPS was to locate things and then put it back there.
And then, so, if they wanted to find it again they'll get GPS
and then find it. And then that underground, whatever->> Carlene Tinker: The ground penetration radar.
>> Diane Honda: Ground penetration radar that they could use to- so, anyway, so I took pictures of the surveying it. I think
this is the ground penetration radar. And it was just really a
great experience. And then this was the people-- I think what
the greatest experience and part of this is, is when you look at
these people, these are-- yeah. There we go. We're on.
>> Carlene Tinker: What happens when I do that?
>> Diane Honda: It just blinks red.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: So I know we're on.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK. All right. Diane, I have really enjoyed
talking to you and hearing your story. So, let's talk about-let's summarize your experiences in your story about being a
resident of the San Joaquin Valley and also as a JapaneseAmerican. Has it been a good one? Would you have liked to do
things differently? Just what have you-- what do you feel?
>> Diane Honda: Well, I always thought the San Joaquin Valley
was a place, especially Cortez where I grew up, was a place
where they said only jackrabbits, you know. And it was dusty.
And that the Japanese actually came to make it better. I guess
it kind of goes along with how we make things better, but
anyway. So I felt like the San Joaquin Valley was my home and
that my grandparents were the ones that helped to make the San
Joaquin Valley as, you know, what it is and the agriculture. So,
I've always owned the San Joaquin Valley as my home. My father
would grow things and enter it in the county-- Merced County and
in state fairs. And again, I didn't feel like he was boxed out
of that because he was not Caucasian, you know, I felt. So, I
actually really-- and very honestly and not to be political, but
I've never really felt boxed out of the American society until
now with the current president we have. So, that's just my
feeling about that.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: But it's-- I think for me in the San Joaquin
Valley is what's definitely the place that-- I mean, now my->> Carlene Tinker: Diane, I-- let me backtrack a little bit. Let
me get a little bit of your occupation-- description of your
occupation. How you were trained for becoming a teacher and how
you met your husband.
>> Diane Honda: Oh, OK. So, I went to UCLA from-- I grew up, of
course, in Cortez in Livingston High school. And then from
there, I went to UCLA. And at UCLA, that was a really wonderful
experience as-- in that UCLA was probably twice the size of the
hometown of Turlock. And just being a little fish in the big
pond was really a good experience for me as opposed to being a
daunting experience. I mean, there were things and I did realize
a few things too which is my rural education was much different
than the kids that grew up in the suburbs, even the kinds of
books they read and the things they did. We had a much more
humble or a less rigorous, I guess, education. But-- So, I went
to UCLA and while I was at UCLA, they had a program where you
could get your teaching credential with your bachelors.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: So, I was->> Carlene Tinker: What kind of credential did you get?
>> Diane Honda: So, I was a sociology major and because I did it
my senior year, I was able to get a standard secondary and a
standard elementary.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: Whereas, the people that did it the year
appropriately that I should do it the year after I graduate, got
Ryan single subjects. And so, the standard credentials allowed
me to, actually, after five years get life credentials without
any kind of special classes to take renewal. So, that ended
being a really good decision from the very beginning.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right. What year was that?
>> Diane Honda: That was in 1976.
>> Carlene Tinker: Nineteen seventy-six. Well, just to give you
an idea of how old I am, I have a general secondary->> Diane Honda: Which is the better.
>> Carlene Tinker: Well. It's really funny because when I was
working in Fresno Unified, they gave a list of people who had
general secondaries and I got this in 1961, I think. There were
like about 15 of us in the whole district. And theoretically,
that allowed us to if we had to teach calculus.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. You could teach anything you want. Yeah.
So, the general was even better than the standard. But the
standard is better than the Ryan. And so->> Carlene Tinker: Oh, OK. I didn't realize that.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. And then of course, I don't know what they
have now. But, now I know they have to get their credentials
renewed a lot.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh, do they?
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. And they have to take classes->> Carlene Tinker: Wow.
>> Diane Honda: -- and all the way through.
>> Carlene Tinker: Wow.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. So I got-- So, I-- after I graduated from
UCLA, I decided-- I was about 22 at the time to move back to
Turlock.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: So I moved back, because I thought my parents
were really old but they probably were only like 60 or something
like that. Anyway, so I moved back to Turlock and taught in
Modesto for three years. And which was actually a really good
thing and my UCLA credential opened a lot of doors for me in
that area because most of the people had gone to San Jose State
or maybe a random Fresno State or Sacramento State but no one
had gone to UCLA. And UCLA had this guru Madeline Hunter at the
time that was kind of like the name in education, so everyone
wanted to interview me. So I got a number of interviews and I
was actually hired in a district in Modesto. Then actually
traditionally when I look back at it, it is a pretty-- -- nondesegregated or pretty-- most of the kids were white.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: And they were-- And-- But they were white and
they were the lower economic status.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: And most all the teachers were not necessary.
But then most of the teachers were white as well with a few
Hispanics [inaudible]. I was the only Asian teacher->> Carlene Tinker: Uh-huh. Did that present a->> Diane Honda: -- in the whole district.
>> Carlene Tinker: Did that present any problems?
>> Diane Honda: You know, I don't think it presented-- Yeah, I
don't think it presented any problems because it was not just
being Asian but I was also a little progressive left because I
went to UCLA. And that probably presented more problems than
being Asian, so->> Carlene Tinker: In what way? I'm not sure I understand.
>> Diane Honda: Well, because I think they were very
conservative right, meaning->> Carlene Tinker: Oh, I see what you're saying.
>> Diane Honda: -- area.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right.
>> Diane Honda: And so my ideas of-- well, I remember
specifically there was a library bulletin board that featured
children all around the nation and, you know, so the Asian one
had very slant eyes and you know, and I found that offensive. So
I said I found that offensive and they took it down. But I'm not
really sure that they understood.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right. Was this a really rural school?
>> Diane Honda: Its pretty rural. In fact->> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: -- it's no longer even. When I-- When my husband
told me about it about two, three years ago and it's boarded up,
so it's not used anymore even though it was a fairly new school
when->> Carlene Tinker: At the time.
>> Diane Honda: -- when I got there but I don't know if the
population shifts or what happened because I didn't follow that.
>> Carlene Tinker: What was the name of the high school?
>> Diane Honda: It was called-- It's a middle school. It was
called Empire Senior Elementary. So anyway-- So-- But from
there, my dad told me that I can't just follow them around to
the bazaars and not go anywhere. Because teaching really was all
encompassing, the first three years I went nowhere, except the
classroom and home and I just prepared and worked and that's all
I did. And so he said, "You need to go back to Los Angeles and
like have a life." But-- So I just said, "OK."
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: I mean, it was-- and in those days in LA
Unified, all you needed to do was apply to LA Unified. You took
their test and then they hired you and-- But they didn't hire
you for any specific school, they just hired you. And at that
time when they hired me, it was during the time when they were
trying to desegregate the teachers. So most of the minority
teachers who live say in the LA Basin, so Asian, black and
Hispanic, they placed them in the San Fernando Valley.
>> Carlene Tinker: Is that so?
>> Diane Honda: And most of the San Fernando Valley teachers who
were Caucasian or white, they had them going into the basin.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh.
>> Diane Honda: And as well as they had forced busing at that
time too for the students. So I felt like it-- that when school
started, the teachers clogged the freeways both ways going to
where they don't live near. And that was actually one of the
first times that I really experienced that this is what happens
because you're this race.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right.
>> Diane Honda: So, you're this race, so you can't teach in West
LA or, you know, Marina Del Rey which is the area I lived in, an
area my-- that was traditionally actually Japanese-American and
so was West LA. I actually wanted to teach in that area but they
wanted white teachers to teach there, so.
>> Carlene Tinker: Well, was that sort of the undertone or?
>> Diane Honda: No, it was blatant.
>> Carlene Tinker: Was it wasn't?
>> Diane Honda: Yes, it wasn't->> Carlene Tinker: I'll be darned.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah, it was blatant. So, it was so blatant that
when I was hired in the San Fernando Valley, so originally, so
you're just placed. So I was placed in the San Fernando Valley
deep in Chatsworth at a school. But they actually didn't have an
opening. They just had nowhere to put us. So I was placed there
and I was with another teacher who was a veteran teacher
probably easily within 10 years of retirement who was placed
there too. And we just cleaned rooms for about two weeks. And
she said, "You know, Diane, you should really enjoy this because
this is really easy compared to being in the classroom." And I
thought "Oh, I want to teach, what is she talking about?" But
anyway, so then I finally got hired at a magnet school. And the
magnet schools also were created so that parents would have a
choice but it was really created for integration. So it was
really created for the kids that were a minority to in the
valley to come out to-- I mean, excuse me, in the basin to come
out to the valley.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK. What year was that?
>> Diane Honda: So-- And that was in 19-- I mean 1979 or 1980.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah, OK. Was that happening here in Fresno?
I think that maybe now that's a little bit before what happened
here->> Diane Honda: Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: -- in Fresno. What school were you at? What
was the name of the school?
>> Diane Honda: So I was at Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched
Studies.
>> Carlene Tinker: What was that?
>> Diane Honda: Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies and->> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: -- it was a magnet.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: And the-- when I just talked about extreme
prejudice when I walked in the classroom and to the office, my
name at the time was Yotsuya and the principal who was kind of
cantankerous and actually infamous for being a bit cantankerous.
He just looked at me, he says, "OK, so I can't pronounce your
name and you're obviously not white so you're hired."
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh, my goodness.
>> Diane Honda: So that was the most->> Carlene Tinker: Oh my->> Diane Honda: But, you know, I have to be honest, I didn't
feel bad because I wanted to be placed in an-- in a school and
my friend taught at the school and she was the one that
recommended me to interview at the school or recommended me to
the principal and she had just been hired as well. And
eventually there was me, Ms. Yotsuya, and then there was my
friend Janet, Ms. Yasuda. So that was a little bit difficult for
the kids too, but->> Carlene Tinker: Well, it sounds like you made out well.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah, yeah. No, I enjoyed being in that school.
He also-- I was just-- He was actually a pragmatic guy in the
sense that he said, "OK, so I need you here to be an art teacher
for the fourth, fifth and sixth graders." And I said, "Well,
first of all, I wasn't really very good in art. I never got
anything on the bulletin board and I teach music and I can teach
English and social science." And so then he said, "OK, listen,
you can sub, you know, as a legitimate teacher, you can still
sub as--" because I was already hired, right? "So you can sub
all over the LA Basin which covers a 250-mile radius or
diameter." He goes, "Or you could work here and I'll give you
this folder and you could figure out how to teach art."
>> Carlene Tinker: So what did you do?
>> Diane Honda: So then I said, "OK, I'll figure it out." I
mean, I was like 25, you know, and so I said, "Yeah, I'll figure
it out." So I started out teaching art and then it be-- it was
an art and then-- and they decided, you know what, since you do
music, why don't you do art and music? And it was an enrichment
kind of class for fourth, fifth and sixth graders. And so that's
where I started out but then I ended up actually teaching
English and then I did the choirs. I've got four, or five
choirs. And I actually did yearbook there too and started the
school newspaper.
>> Carlene Tinker: Now, had-- Your musical background, is it in
choir or do you play an instrument?
>> Diane Honda: OK. So, I-- yeah, I started out at UCLA as a
piano, in-- well, actually I got into UCLA as an undeclared
major.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: Because I didn't meet the music theory
requirements to be a music major because they didn't have those
kinds of classes in my school. So I went there but then to be-and then that was another, a little fish-- big pond is. You
know, I was a really good pianist in Livingston. But compared to
the people that were trained in Los Angeles, you know, I was not
good at all. And so that coupled with deciding whether I wanted
to spend these hours and whether I really love this or if I
wanted to explore something else. And what I really want to
explore was journalism because I did like journalism. I was
exposed to it a little in high school not necessarily a great
program. But I wanted to see what it was like at UCLA. And at
UCLA, I was not behind. My stuff was published by-- You know, I
had a lot of success in journalism, so I left the music behind
but I did take while I was there enough piano classes, voice
classes and choral education classes to be able to qualify to
have a credential in music and social science and English.
>> Carlene Tinker: My gosh.
>> Diane Honda: So that worked out very good.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah. You've got them all-- all the basics.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah, because at UCLA they were very interested
in us being employable. So they said, "You're not going to be
employable if you just put music on there or social-- I was a
sociology major so, you know, they don't even teach sociology
in->> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: -- high schools, right? So they said you need to
make sure that you have this-- you know, certain history classes
and certain English classes so that you can teach all of those
things and then they-- with the English-- with the single-- not
single subject but with the standard credential. The
requirements to get expertise in that were less. So that was
also good that I got a single subject.
>> Carlene Tinker: Wow. Wow.
>> Diane Honda: So, yeah. So I ended up-- Yeah. So mainly at
Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies which I stayed there
for about 15 years and that's when I met Larry, he was a->> Carlene Tinker: OK. And Larry is your husband?
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. And he was a substitute teacher.
>> Carlene Tinker: He was.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. And he came from Fresno State. He grew up
in Seaside but he came here to Fresno State because he likes hot
weather.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh my gosh.
>> Diane Honda: Right. Seaside is my Monterey, right?
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah, right.
>> Diane Honda: So he said, in Monterey you have to wear jackets
all year round and he just didn't like that and he really liked
the fact that in Fresno you can wear shorts and you could go
swimming.
>> Carlene Tinker: I need to talk to him about that.
>> Diane Honda: And how-- Yeah. And so he moved to Fresno and he
was in the music department here. And then from here went to Los
Angeles with a jazz group and eventually got his master's degree
at USC.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: So-- But when he was just first moved in order
to make money, he also had a teaching credential. And so he
substitute taught. And my girlfriend, she really wanted to get
married. I mean she really wanted to get married. So every
Japanese-American guy that walked in the doors practically, even
if she sees this she'll laugh. She was wanting to know who he
was. And so when she met Larry she said, "You know, this guy’s
into music and he, you know, so he's more your type." So she
introduced me to him and I just said, "Oh, my gosh, Jen, you're
just crazy." But anyway, in the long run about three years
later, we were married--to him.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah. And so then, how long did you guys live
in LA and when did you move to Fresno?
>> Diane Honda: So we lived in LA for about, I’d say about 12
years. So we got married and he went to USC and so we've been in
the Marina Del Rey area. Then his parents gave us money to put a
deposit on a condo in West LA.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh wow.
>> Diane Honda: And so we purchased that and then he got a job
in the San Fernando Valley. So we not only integrated it, we
moved to the San Fernando Valley and Woodland Hills.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: So, because of the West LA real estate, we were
able to take that, sell it and buy a nice house in Woodland
Hills.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right, so->> Diane Honda: So anyway, so we were in Woodland Hills. And
then it came to a point where we needed to decide with-- we had
a child, Marissa, and we only had one child but we didn't know
that at the time we would only have one. Whether we wanted to
bring her up in Los Angeles, and we were very familiar with what
LA kids were like or if we wanted to get her back into the San-into the San Joaquin Valley. My parents were alive at the time.
I have a lot of family in Turlock. I just thought it would be
really nice to go to Turlock, so-- But, you know, music jobs,
there's not a lot of music jobs, so usually, you know, Turlock
has one high school and they have one music person and they were
still.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: So he had friends in Fresno and the new Buchanan
was just opening. And so the middle school guy was going to the
high school. So the middle school is open. So Larry interviewed
for that and got that job.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: Which ended up being, you know, of course very
good because Turlock is sort-- I mean Turlock is very small and
LA, of course, is very large but Fresno was a really good choice
in the middle->> Carlene Tinker: Right.
>> Diane Honda: -- kind of choice.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right.
>> Diane Honda: And a lot of opportunities for my daughter as
she grew up here in Fresno that they would not have had in
Turlock.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right. OK. So he gets this job in Fresno,
what did you-- what kind of job did you get in Fresno?
>> Diane Honda: Well, so then I entered in-- at this point in
time I have had about four-- maybe more-- maybe about 16 years
of teaching experience. And so I interviewed-- I registered at
Fresno Unified and I interviewed at Fresno High School. And it
was interesting because we rented a house in Clovis and so when
they did my interview they said, "Where do you live?" I said,
"Well, we live in Clovis." And then he goes, "Well, you have no
idea what the kids at Fresno High School would be like then."
Even though I had taught in LA and those school kids were busted
from all over in Los Angeles. And I had a very good idea what->> Carlene Tinker: Of course.
>> Diane Honda: -- kids of->> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: -- color and kids of poverty and all of those
but-- And so they said no, you know, so I didn't get that job.
So then I went to Hoover and interviewed but they said Hoover
was a little bit of a setup because some-- a district supervisor
was actually going to take that job but they had to interview
other people to prove that they wanted her. So anyway, so I was
the other people. So anyway, so I went there and, you know, I
didn't get that job. And so my husband was good friends with Les
Nunes who was the band director at Bullard.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh yes, I remembered him.
>> Diane Honda: And so he said that they-- he said, you know,
"We need a choir director because I'm doing the choir and I
can't do the choir and everything and my band program is big
and--" So Robert Knapp who was the English Department chair, I
really thank him a lot because, you know, he took the chance on
someone who had never taught high school English and-- But hired
me because I could do one period of choir for Bullard and-- but- and four periods of English. And at that point in time the
newspaper position at Bullard wasn't open. And at that point in
time, I didn't even really have time to read, so it was a good
thing, at least fiction. You know, and that's what English was
at that point in time was teaching fiction. And so, I, you know,
give him-- I thank him a lot for that. So from there, you know,
my position at Bullard I was there 21 years and it evolved to be
the newspaper and yearbook opened up. And so in eventuality I
did newspaper. And then at the end of my career, I also did the
yearbook and the newspaper. And then I did the choir when Fresno
Unified decided to fire all their music teachers. And so Tim
Belcher, the principal came to me and said "Would you like to do
the choir?" And I said, "Well, actually not." And the reason I
moved away from music is because my daughter was now old enough
to take lessons and I need-- I needed the afternoon times
instead of doing extra rehearsals or going on trips of the
choir. I wanted to spend that with my daughter and so teaching
English actually fit in better.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: And so he said-- he says, "No." He goes,
"Listen, we fired all the music teachers in Fresno Unified. So,
you have a music credential, you have some that you have
experience," because I did that in LA. And so he says, "So, put
it to you this way, I want them to come in to your class. I want
them to sing every day. They don't have to go to festival. They
don't have to travel. They don't have to do anything. All they
have to do is go in in there and sing. And if you don't want to
do that, then we're not having any music at Bullard at all." So
then I said, "OK, I would do that." But I called myself the
interim choir director. But I was the interim choir director for
five years. So-- And then they hired a band director that needed
another band director so they took over the choir. But anyway,
but it was a wonderful experience being at Bullard High School.
I met you at Bullard High School. And the students there were
actually unlike any of the other student populations I had
taught. They were mostly at that point in time mostly upper
class white students.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right. Right. And, yes, we did meet there and
because of you, my interest in-- or your parents' internment
camp and my own internment camp which happens to be Amache.
Because of you and your experience with Amache, that's how I got
started in learning about my own history.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: I have that to thank you. What year did you
first enter Bullard and you just recently retired?
>> Diane Honda: Yeah, I retired in 2015. And so I started
Bullard probably in 1994 or something like that->> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: -- somewhere in that->> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: -- time period.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right. And I was there twice, 1986 to '93 and
then I came back 2000 to 2003, something like that.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. And then your daughter continued.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah. And my daughter still teaches there.
Now, I'm not sure how this fits in->> Diane Honda: Oh, sure I could talk about this.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah. I want you to share with the viewers
here the work that you've done as a journalist and then also as
a descendant of Amache people and then also with your uncle. So
let's first start with the-- your book.
>> Diane Honda: OK. So when I was in Los Angeles, I did the
yearbook and my-- and I did the yearbook. I did probably at
least 10 years of yearbooks. And my yearbook rep-- was a gal
named [Konnie] Chrislock who became actually a very good
lifelong friend. We're still seeing each other. And I was
telling her about how my father-in-law had recently passed away.
And so that was probably-- or in the early 1990s. But he had
left this yearbook or he had this yearbook. And my mother-in-law
said, "You're the yearbook teacher, you want to take a look at
it? If you want it, you can have it." And so I looked at the
yearbook and it was from Manzanar High School and it covered
grades 7 through 12.
>> Carlene Tinker: This is your father or->> Diane Honda: My father-in-law.
>> Carlene Tinker: Father-in-law, OK.
>> Diane Honda: Ansel Adams was its photo-- was the main->> Carlene Tinker: Oh, that's right. Right.
>> Diane Honda: -- photographer. So Ansel Adams in his fame->> Carlene Tinker: Well, also Dorothea Lange.
>> Diane Honda: But then we didn't have any Dorothea Lange
pictures in here. These were all Ansel->> Carlene Tinker: Just Ansel's, OK.
>> Diane Honda: -- Ansel Adams pictures. So, that of course made
me very interested. There were pictures of Ansel Adams in here.
Then the other photographer that took many of the pictures was
Toyo Miyatake who in the Japanese-American community is as
famous as Ansel Adams, or even more so because he took many
family portraits and those sorts of things. So I was showing
that to my friend Konnie and she said, "You know, Diane, you
should reproduce this. I work for Herff Jones, you know, we
don't do that much during the summer. Maybe you could put this
together and we could reproduce it." So the first thing I said,
OK. So the first thing I did was I started making slides. I made
slides and I did presentations at the National Journalism
Education Association Conferences about this yearbook, where it
came from, kind of from the idea that your yearbook needs to
tell a story. And your stories, you
to the year you're there. And so it
received. And the students in these
do, it was part of the-- they would
journals of students at these--
know, need to be prevalent
was-- they were very well
presentations that I would
be anywhere from 3 to 5,000
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh my.
>> Diane Honda: -- and you would have-- they could choose which
workshops they wanted to attend. And so mine was one of the
workshop and it was almost always attended by about 40 or 50
people.
>> Carlene Tinker: Wow.
>> Diane Honda: So that right there showed me that there was
interest. And then I would get other kinds of comments that
said, you know, that's a very interesting story. I really like,
you know, first of all I didn't know this is what happened. I
think one of the things that was most poignant to them are these
pictures of the students with their names and the high school
they would have graduated from had they not been interned. And
so to them, to see these senior portraits and see that these
people did not get to go to their senior high school and they
were instead put in these camps was pretty telling to them. And
so, I got a lot of, you know and lot of things from kids or a
lot of interest from the students. And then of course I studied
it a little bit more too. And then this guy Ralph Lazo, Lazo is
not a Japanese name. And so, you know, I found-- because at that
point in time, in the '90s when this came out, there were still
people that were living that worked on this book. And he was not
living at the time but he was actually a friend of a lot of the
kids that went to camp and went and did activities with them.
And I guess in the 1940s, people didn't keep track of their
children as well because his mom had passed away. His sister was
working. His father was working and he decided to go to camp
with them. So when they went to camp, he just got on the train.
>> Carlene Tinker: Is that how he got there?
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. And so they said, "You know, Ralph, you
can't be on this train because you're not Japanese," and he
goes, "It's OK, I'm just going to be here." And then they said,
"No, you can't be here." So he went to the back of another car
and he just sat there. And so when he got to camp, they just
took him in and he didn't have any family. So they put him in-he was at the time, he must have been about 15 or 16 but they
took him in and then they put him in the bachelor quarters
because he didn't have a family. And it really wasn't until he
graduated high school and he enlisted in the army that they
realized he was not Japanese at all. He was Hispanic and Irish,
so-- But he was a really good friend and as you see he was a
class officer.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: And so through his friends, I was able actually
to write a story about him in the back of this book.
>> Carlene Tinker: Let me interject the question here. Now,
these pictures were some that you just picked up from the first
yearbook.
>> Diane Honda: Yes.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: So the first book for the very-- the authentic
yearbook had this in it.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: It was the same entry. The cover was made up of
a different material that wasn't quite as durable as this. But
the inside, we were actually able to scan them or Toyo
Miyatake's son, Archie, was able to provide me with new prints.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh my gosh.
>> Diane Honda: That he printed out for me.
>> Carlene Tinker: And then I understand you-- did you rewrite a
lot of that stuff or->> Diane Honda: No.
>> Carlene Tinker: -- is any of that original?
>> Diane Honda: All of this is original. All of this is
original.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh, yeah.
>> Diane Honda: So all of these pictures, everything is
original.
>> Carlene Tinker: That is absolutely amazing.
>> Diane Honda: And I
Merit, he has passed.
so all of these-- and
that Jeanne Wakatsuki
interviewed Helen-- this is the-- Ralph
But this Helen Bannai was in here and I-this picture right down here was a picture
Houston who wrote "Farewell to Manzanar".
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh, yeah, yeah.
>> Diane Honda: She is in this picture and she-- or she uses
that picture.
>> Carlene Tinker: Is she one of those?
>> Diane Honda: No, she's not one of these but she uses that
picture as part of her. And she is in the baton club in here as
one of the little ones in there.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah. She actually went to the high-- same
high school my cousin went to after we came back, Long Beach
Poly.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. She writes in "Farewell to Manzanar" that
was a tough time for her.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right. Right.
>> Diane Honda: Really tough time for her.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right. Now your father-in-law, where were
they in assembly center, Santa Anita probably?
>> Diane Honda: OK. So my father-in-law, they were in Monterey
but they felt like they would be safer if they were with
relatives. So they moved into San Pedro.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK. Yeah. Then they went to->> Diane Honda: And they're from San Pedro. I don't know that
they went to Santa Anita but they ended up in Manzanar.
>> Carlene Tinker: Probably. Yeah. Because my aunt was a-- she
worked in a cannery in San Pedro in Terminal Island, and we all
got sent to Fres-- I mean, Santa Anita family center.
>> Diane Honda: OK.
>> Carlene Tinker: So then they split us up. For example, I went
to Amache.
>> Diane Honda: Right.
>> Carlene Tinker: Some people went to Manzanar. Some went to
Jerome, my cousins. Yeah. so, yeah, I think they wanted to break
us up because they didn't think you should be together.
>> Diane Honda: Right. Because it was such a large population.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. So, anyway, so it was interesting. It
turns out that these seniors tested out of regular English. So
they were put in this yearbook class. And then I actually read
more in the last 10 years got a call from the niece of the woman
that was the yearbook advisor and how she, you know, what she
felt about doing this and why it was important to do the
yearbook and how she took it out of camp to have it published.
And that was, you know, that's a big deal but actually all the
camps did have yearbooks but it was a big deal I think for her
to do that.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right.
>> Diane Honda: This is an original picture and this is the same
end sheet but it's in black and white.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: And then this is the-- actually the two
yearbooks, so this was the first but the last picture in the
second one was this. And that was because they knew they were
getting out.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yes.
>> Diane Honda: And so he staged this picture, Toyo Miyatake
staged this picture.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh, that's wonderful.
>> Diane Honda: So I included it because I just thought it was
so->> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: -- poignant. And so this was another letter
about their experiences written by Helen Bannai. And Helen
Bannai's husband was a state assemblyman, Paul Bannai.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: And then I was able to interview all but one of
the editors to kind of say this is what happened to them. One of
them passed away but if you figure that I did this in the '90s
and this was done in the '40s that it's pretty amazing that they
were still->> Carlene Tinker: That they were around.
>> Diane Honda: That they were around and they were actually
very successful. So I took and have the picture of them in high
school and the most current picture which probably wasn't that
current but-- that they provided for me and->> Carlene Tinker: And there is Ralph Lazo.
>> Diane Honda: And this is the Ralph Lazo story. And then I
also did a story on Toyo Miyatake and what he meant to the
Japanese-American community. And then this is just a->> Carlene Tinker: Now, just a second on Toyo, isn't he one who
was-- who illegally brought in the camera and wasn't he the one,
I think there's a story about him having a box and he's got his
camera inside. And so he is not-- he's sneaking in and his
camera was not detected for awhile->> Diane Honda: Well->> Carlene Tinker: -- or what was the story on that?
>> Diane Honda: What was-- he snuck in a lens and the mechanism
to hold the film, and he took the pictures from that box.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh, is that how->> Diane Honda: Yeah. So it was, yeah, it was pretty amazing.
And then this is just a background information, because what I
really thought this would be in eventuality so, I-- so Konnie
gave me that idea while I was still living in LA. But I actually
didn't finish this project until I came to Fresno.
>> Carlene Tinker: Is that right?
>> Diane Honda: And when I came to Fresno I hired one of my
editors at Bullard to work with me over the summer. And we
worked on this and we put this together. I want-- I think it was
in 1998, it was in the '90s and->> Carlene Tinker: And didn't you also get a grant to do this?
>> Diane Honda: Yes. This grant came. This is the redress letter
that was issued to each of the people who were in the camps.
This one was signed by George Bush.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right.
>> Diane Honda: And so I did-- Yes, they were what they called
Civil Liberties grants. And so, I got a Civil Liberties grants
to reproduce this. I sold them to the Japanese-American
community by mail order. And then, I sold them at journals and
conferences because I went back with these. And then the
remainder of them were actually sold by the Japanese-American
National Museum which was pretty new at the time but-- So I
believe that I ordered about 2,000.
>> Carlene Tinker: Whoa.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. I mean that's where most of the money went
was to purchase.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: And then I sold them all. And then yeah, they
were sold. And then the money that I made from it, I used for
promotion.
>> Carlene Tinker: Good.
>> Diane Honda: So the promotion to--And-- But what I discover- OK, so, this is a companion actually with "Farewell to
Manzanar" because in the book "Farewell to Manzanar" she talks
about finding this yearbook in the closet. And that, well, it
brought back memories. And she specifically talks about that
picture, a little baton girl. Even though she wasn't in it she
remembered that. And once she was-- explained that to her
husband who is an English professor at UC Santa Cruz I think,
she-- He said, you know, you need to write that story. So, she
with the help of her husband James Houston.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh, that's how it came about.
>> Diane Honda: Wrote that story. Yeah. And so this is just-talks about the camps and it also gave resources which probably
at this point are 30 years old so, they’re probably not. And
these are the people that helped me with it and my student and
myself and what I look like and kind of why I did that is what
this is all about.
>> Carlene Tinker: And I kind of remembered too that you said
something about the font. You->> Diane Honda: Mm-hmm.
>> Carlene Tinker: You--Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: OK. So, on here on this back part, all of these
spots here was created or right here you could see easier, was
created in the '90s. And so what I had in Macintosh box
computer, you know, they look like-- they're just a big box. And
I don't even know where the font came from, but my student Nick
Bruque who worked with us on, I said, you know, we need to find
a font that looks like, you know, these fonts here or these
fonts here. And so he says, I think I found one, it's called
ribbon. And I went what?
>> Carlene Tinker: What is it called?
>> Diane Honda: Ribbon.
>> Carlene Tinker: Ribbon?
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. I mean, and you were talking about in the
'90s this was done, you know. And so you couldn't just go on the
internet and download->> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: -- fonts. And for some reason it was there from
maybe some print. I mean, I don't even know why it was there. I
just like to think it was just, you know, it was just meant to
be. So anyway, so he found it and he put, he-- we worked on it
together and worked on these pages together. And so now, it's
been 20-- more than 20 years. In 2015 they told me it had been
20 years since. So I guess 1995 is when we-- since it had been
produced and some of the teachers, journalism teachers were
saying I need to reproduce it again for the new generation of
teachers. But it's actually online. It's online and available in
PDF. I think there is all the camp yearbooks are available
online on-- as PDFs.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah. What a contribution, that is marvelous.
>> Diane Honda: So->> Carlene Tinker: Let me set this down over here. Let's
continue with sort of your history in the valley. It sounds like
quite different from my own experience and my parents'
experiences. You grew up in a very nice area, you didn't really
feel discrimination, there were-- might couple incidents. I
think one time you were-- I think you were shopping and somebody
referred to you as a Jap or?
>> Diane Honda: Oh, swimming with my friends in that community
pool.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh, was that what-- yeah.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: But that's really not, not a big->> Diane Honda: Right. It was not really that big but--
>> Carlene Tinker: And then even when you were at UCLA compared
to my experience, you-- For some reason-- and I think you
explained it earlier, that the reason you probably didn't feel a
lot of discrimination or racism was because you were in a group
of Japanese-American student.
>> Diane Honda: A lot of them.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah. And I on the other hand, did not. OK. I
came from Long Beach and there were just the two of us. My
friend was also Japanese American. I tried to join a sorority. I
tried to be a pep girl and it was not going to happen. OK.
Because I was supposed to go to a Japanese sorority I was-- And
I had not had that experience, so I didn't want to do that. So,
my experience was quite different, and not particularly bad but
different. OK. Now, let's see, I was going to ask you about your
experience with Amache. Your parents as I recall met in Amache
which is one of the 10 relocation camps. And I know too that we
talked about-- Well, you first of all introduced me to Amache
because you went to one of the pilgrimages. What year was that?
1998 or something? Was it about the->> Diane Honda: Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: -- about that time?
>> Diane Honda: That sounds about, right.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. That sounds correct.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right. And so that kindled my interest and I- in 2006 I think it was I took a little-- My husband and I were
en route to Connecticut where our son was studying and doing a
postdoc. And so we took a side trip. And from there it's
history. I've been very involved with the Amache Camp. And I
think I told you about the Amache field school. And
coincidentally you went to these. You want to describe what
those field schools are?
>> Diane Honda: Well, first of all, it wasn't a coincidence. You
told me about that. So, I didn't find about them independently.
Bonnie had a sabbatical. And during her sabbatical she went to
visit different colleges and talk. And so she came here to
Fresno State. And so I went to that Fresno State meeting and->> Carlene Tinker: Was that over-- was that the archeology?
>> Diane Honda: Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK. All right.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah. Because of that I-- yeah, she came.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah, and that's because of you.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. So it's not a coincidence. So-- And then
while I was there, there were other people [Sab Masada] were
there and they talked about how interesting and how this would
be so great. And then my-- someone that was actually even older
than my brother, Kenny Narita [assumed spelling] from Cortez who
became a principal but at that time had been retired, newly
retired. He also said, "God, Diane, this is great. We should all
go." So I thought, "OK, we should all go." So then, I went home
and told my family, "We should all go, this is really great."
And my own immediate family were like, "Maybe you could ask your
cousins and see what they think." And so I asked my cousins. My
daughter actually had gone to the pilgrimage. So she knew where
this was, but she was-- said she was busy. And so I went to my
cousins at 4th of July because we have quite of a 4th of July
reunion in Turlock. And I told them all about it and they just
all looked at me like, OK. And then one of my cousin's sons who
became an Eagle Scout and he just walked by and he goes, "I'll
go with you auntie." And I said, "Really?" I mean, because he
just actually walked in and walked out. And then later I asked
him again he was, "oh yeah." And then I got the information
because I'd signed up. And so Bonnie sent me the information
about school. And so I taught-- I called Tyler's mom and said
OK. And he was 16 at the time or something, going to be a senior
maybe. And I said, "Does he really want to do this?" She said,
"Yeah." And then, so I got the plane reservations and then, I
said, "Are you sure? I'm hitting the return button right now."
And he definitely wanted to go. And so we went together. And
Tyler's not someone that I really knew really well because, you
know, I knew him of course as a baby and growing up but not
spend a week with him. So-- And we got put up in that hotel in-what's the name of that neighbor in->> Carlene Tinker: In Holly?
>> Diane Honda: In Holly->> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: -- I think it was.
>> Carlene Tinker: Holly Suites Inn or something like-- it's a
very old hotel.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. It's a very old, old hotel where the hot
water comes out of the cold.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah, it's bare bones.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah, yeah. And so, anyway, so we both-- so we
stayed there and it was very good. It was a very good experience
because I look at Tyler being-- Tyler's grandfather is a Sansei.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: So, I don't even know what that makes him beyond
a Yonsei. Gosei I guess.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh, his grand-- oh yeah, he might be Gosei.
>> Diane Honda: Yes. His grandfather is a Sansei. Because his
grandmother was in-- great grandmother was a Nisei.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: So, you know, in some ways if-- OK. What will
this kid contribute to this? But he actually contributed a lot
and he learned a lot. And I think it was a very good trip for
him to do. And then of course he was 17, so if you wanted people
to cut down brush, or do any of those things.
>> Carlene Tinker: To do that. Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: He could do it and he had the gumption to do
those things and digging holes. But he also ran the GPS thing
and then that thing that-- or that you hold, right? And then he
also ran that thing that shows what's underneath.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right, the ground penetrating radar.
>> Diane Honda: Yes. Yeah, the radio waves.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: So, he, you know, I think and then he met of
course all the kids that were there for the whole summer. So, I
think it was a great experience for him and for me as well.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah. This is an archeology field school that
Dr. Bonnie Clark teaches kids from not just DU, Denver
University but all over the United States they get credit. In
one month they can go from step one to step-- and step to become
an archeologist. It's not concentrating on just one phase, they
learn everything. And also, if they wanted to become a museum
curator they can also learn how to do that. And she employs a
lot of her own students, grad students and they're coming back.
And that's how I got started. Not-- I'm not a former student but
one of her workshops that I attended at the reunion in Las Vegas
I volunteered. And in 2010 I volunteered and I went for two
weeks and I've gone every two years since then. So I've done
five of them now.
>> Diane Honda: Wow.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: Wow.
>> Carlene Tinker: So the whole idea is to teach kids how to
become archeologist. So you want to show a little bit about your
memory book there?
>> Diane Honda: Yes. So this was just us on our way. And the
idea when we got there, what we did and what I did is I put this
together because-- there were two things. So Tyler actually did
a daily video of each day, what we did and how we did it, kind
of a vlog they call it, V-L-O-G.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right.
>> Diane Honda: And so, at the end of the day after we took our
showers I had to go over to his room and he videotaped us
talking about what we did for the day.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh, how awesome.
>> Diane Honda: And so, the following summer he showed that
vlog. I mean, we only did about say five minutes a day. But
anyway, showed the vlog to the family. And then we said, "Don't
you guys all want to go?" And anyway, they still didn't want to
go. They wanted to go to the open house they said.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: So anyway, so after we went in the summer, Tyler
got his Eagle Scout. So, I wanted to present this to him as his
Eagle Scout present. And so that's why I put it together. And I
also wanted to also chronicle what we did. And so, there's a
picture right here for example of my mother's family standing in
front of a barrack at camp. And they-- And then this is my
mother in front of that same barrack. And then when we were
there the archeologist students that were there showed us
because we knew where the address was, where they believe that
camp was. So this is us standing in front of-- and so, I like to
think maybe one of these trees here, it's a stump, because I
mean it's 50 years later. But so-- But to me it was-- it was
really a great experience because first of all, I kind of
experienced the weather and what it's like to be there, what it
would be like if I wasn't spending a week there but this is
where I had to live, and putting up with that weather which was
quite drastic just during the day. It could be raining and
thundering and then in the afternoon be nice, or. I mean, it's
just-- it's a brutal place to live and even now, not many people
live there.
>> Carlene Tinker: That's right.
>> Diane Honda: And so I thought that was a great thing for me
with my mother's family. Tyler comes from my father's side. This
is where the Boy Scout building was, and so he took a picture
with another grandson that was there who is also a Boy Scout.
And these guys here were all Boys Scout eagle. They all earned
their-- yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh, it was the [inaudible]. And Cody is the
one with a beard.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. They had all earned their eagle scouts.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: And so these are just some of the activities
that we did. And the more-- And then one of the things that we
did while we were there is we visited the Sand Creek Massacre. I
don't know if you've gone to that.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah, I do.
>> Diane Honda: And it's a Native American site where they were
massacred.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: This is essentially->> Carlene Tinker: The army-- Just a part of the army went in.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: It was not condoned by the government but it
was [inaudible].
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. And so this is all the fieldwork that we
did just to remind him. And of course as you said in the
afternoon, we worked in the museum itself and curating the
objects. And so these were just some of the things that we did
and saw. And it was really a good-- it was really good. All
right. It was-- I don't know how to describe it except-- OK. So
this is 2014. I should put that on the front of the book.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: Anyway, it was really a good experience for us
to be there.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: And to do this. And he went on to UC Irvine and
he's in his last year right now.
>> Carlene Tinker: Where?
>> Diane Honda: UC Irvine.
>> Carlene Tinker: Good for him.
>> Diane Honda: And he's very involved in their [Taiko] group.
>> Carlene Tinker: Good.
>> Diane Honda: So he, you know, definitely not just from me. In
the summers, I think it's important to talk about actually. In
the summers my sister-in-law about 30 years ago started this
thing call a Gakko or a school but-- Japanese school. But it
wasn't about Japan. She wanted to concentrate on Japanese
American history. So, all the kids, K through eight are in
classes where for one week, just in the mornings, they learn
about Japanese-American history.
>> Carlene Tinker: Wow.
>> Diane Honda: From the time that they're in kindergarten to
eighth grade. And I did the seventh and eighth grade class, and
Tyler went through that program.
>> Carlene Tinker: Wonderful.
>> Diane Honda: And as did my daughter. And so, that also gave
them real-- you know, they think about Gakko and they remember
the experiences and the things that they learned at Gakko.
>> Carlene Tinker: Awesome.
>> Diane Honda: So->> Carlene Tinker: I want to point out that Amache is in
Southeastern Colorado on Highway 50, the Santa Fe Trail. And
it's named after the daughter of the chief who was killed, who
was massacred at the Sand Creek massacre. Her name was Amache
and somebody from Lamar, a nearby town suggested that name for
the camp. And the reason why they renamed the camp, which is
technically called Granada relocation camp. The reason they
renamed it was because the little town just a mile away was
inundated with mail for the camp people. And so they couldn't
handle it. Obviously there are 7,000 people at the camp and
maybe 300 people in the town. So that's why it got renamed. OK.
Incidentally, the museum and all of Granada was just pummeled
this summer, this past summer with hailstorms. So big that it
ripped out windows, knocked out windows in the new barrack that
they had just put in a few years ago. Hundreds of thousands of
dollars of damage has been done. And they are still working
through that. But on the good side, I just got a letter from
John Hopper who runs the camp. He is the local high school
principal. And he has a special group of students called the
Amache Preservation Society. They maintain the camp. Well
anyway, across the street from the museum, the bank is giving up
their building and giving it to the APS. They are going to
continue with the ATM, but will now have a bigger museum.
>> Diane Honda: Wow.
>> Carlene Tinker: And they're going to be able to expand. So->> Diane Honda: Wow.
>> Carlene Tinker: -- that there is awesome. It's really good
news. Yeah. So, let's move along. One of the things what we
didn't talk about was redress. You did show in your yearbook
there the letter from George H.W. Bush with-- that was sent to
people who got reparations as a result of the 1988 Civil
Liberties Act. I think that's correct. And we each, whoever was
in the camp, got $20,000. OK. And we-- I don't know, your
parents got it I'm sure. OK. There were some of us who-- some of
the Japanese-Americans who refused it. But recently to you-that you brought to mind an article about your uncle, James
Murakami. And I think he played a role in this. And I like you
to talk about that a little bit for our readers or viewers.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah, my uncle Jim Murakami was the national
JACL president when they first started talking about this
redress and moving forward. Actually-- and he actually wasn't
talk-- yeah. Actually, he was more-- And so he-- actually, I'm
going to take that back. He was involved with the JACL at that
time. But where he was actually more involved with is the JACL
accepting the resisters and what the resisters did into the
JACL.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: And I don't know if that's mentioned to him. But
anyway, and the controversy in the JACL between the 442 and the
draft resisters from Heart Mountain, and whether they're both
considered heroes. And our generation, my generation who were
not in the camps who didn't know the men that did either, we
look at both of them as heroes to be able to stand up for a
constitutional right and say, "I'm not going to go to the
military unless my parents are released from their prison
camps." And be willing to go to prison for that. That's a heroic
thing. But going to the war and fighting in Europe and losing-many, many, many people lost their lives, that is heroic. So,
yeah, when he was president one of the big things was the
argument as to which ones were more heroic.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right. Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: The 442s are always looked at as being heroic.
But my uncle Jim was a role model to me for being an advocate->> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: -- and activist.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right. And that brings up a question in my
mind, you know, what would I have done, what would I have done,
you know, put yourself in the place of the people who were given
those loyalty questions, how would you have responded if your
parents were there with you? Some people answered no, no, you
know. And some people say that was wrong but, you know. You kind
of think about it, right?
>> Diane Honda: Right. Because if your parents only speak
Japanese and you're the one speaking English for them and you're
foreswearing allegiance to the emperor of Japan, again, as it
said it's like asking them to say do you like your mother better
or your father and who are you going with?
>> Carlene Tinker: Right.
>> Diane Honda: And, yeah, I think ended up-- And actually they
were asking, "Do you want allegiance to your family or
allegiance to your country?"
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah, absolutely.
>> Diane Honda: And so, some of the people that answered no were
actually having allegiance to their family.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right. Right.
>> Diane Honda: So--
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah, I've had the experience.
>> Diane Honda: Pretty tough.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah. I had the experience of interviewing a
couple families, a couple people from families that answered no,
no. And their responses and why they did it were different. You
know, as what you're alluding to right now. Let's see here. Let
me summarize what we have talked about. In general you've been
able to tell us what its been like to be a Japanese American.
How would you identify yourself ethni-- if you-- if somebody is
introducing you and what would you-- how do you first introduce
yourself? Do you say, I'm Japanese American or I'm Diane Honda
or what? How do you do that?
>> Diane Honda: Well, I definitely give them my name Diane
Honda. My daughter said when she went to college if she said she
was Japanese American the other kids go, you don't look like
you're part Caucasian, which is not the answer that I got when I
went to college. When I went to college I said I was Japanese
American. I think pretty much everyone realized I was an
American of Japanese descent. So I thought it was interesting
that it had kind of devolved into Japanese American that you're
Japanese and Caucasian.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh my.
>> Diane Honda: So I thought that was kind of interesting first
of all.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah.
>> Diane Honda: But she went to school with a lot of kids who
are considered Shin-Nisei which means they are new Niseis, their
parents were not part of interment experience but they were new
immigrants and they were the children of these new immigrants.
And so it was a difference. But one thing that I will say that
is very recent is that I did the 23andMe DNA test. And so, I am
97% Japanese but then I'm 3% Korean. So that's kind of cool
actually. Because, you know, and so they said from five to eight
generations ago some Korean person was in there, right?
>> Carlene Tinker: And entered the bedroom.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. Yeah. And also what prefectures I'm from
was different from what my parents told me. So, my parents said
that we were from Fukui and Kumamoto. But the 23andMe said that
my predominant prefecture is Yamaguchi.
>> Carlene Tinker: Where is that in relation to--
>> Diane Honda: And it's not that-- Well, it's on I guess the-I guess it's on the same side but it's not that close.
>> Carlene Tinker: And they actually->> Diane Honda: Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: -- will tell you what prefecture?
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. And my daughter did it as well. And she is
also 3% Korean which means that my husband gave her some Korean
too. He has not done it. But his family all came from Wakayama.
His parents, both side grandparents, and her predominant
prefecture is Wakayama.
>> Carlene Tinker: Oh my god.
>> Diane Honda: So, yeah. So it is kind of->> Carlene Tinker: That leaves me, maybe I ought to do that and
see what mine is like. OK. I think we have done a pretty good
job in describing your life as a Japanese-American living in the
San Joaquin Valley. And I have particularly learned a lot about
the Yamato Colony which is where you have spent your early times
of your life. My final question is how would you like to be
remembered? What is your legacy? That's a tough question.
>> Diane Honda: Its a daunting question. Mother, teacher,
Christian. I-- yeah, I-- that's something-- it's actually
something I don't think about but it is something I do think
about because now especially in retirement, you know, you want
to make sure that your days count. You know, you can just sit
around and enjoy yourself and sleep and watch TV, but if you're
healthy and you can walk around, why you--why do that, you know.
There are things that you want to do. So I'm not really sure. I
guess, historian, I do a lot of sewing, and so I imagine the
sewing projects I do will outlive me. The projects that I did,
these photographs and things, those will outlive me.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: I'm not really sure.
>> Carlene Tinker: Yeah. I know it's a tough question. So, let's
put it this way. How do you think you've contributed as a
person? What have you contributed? Well, you know, that would be
part of your legacy.
>> Diane Honda: That's not as-- and what-- OK. So, basically as
a teacher for 38 years I spent my life as a teacher, so I hope
there are some students along the way that felt like something
they did in the classroom helped them grow as a person. That I
would like to think is my main-- And then in my own family I
hope that things that I've done within the family has helped
people grow. So that, you know, when I-- You're a kid you say,
you know, I want to grow up and I want to make a difference. I
want to do something that makes a difference. And so, my brother
was very involved with the Asian American movement, and so he
made a difference by being an activist. And I haven't been an
activist in a bold sense, but in more of a passive sense of
creating the yearbooks, speaking about it. But what I mean is
I'm not-- gone out and protested. But in those kind of
background senses I'd like to hope that I helped to contribute.
And even that yearbook, you know, and I also have a very strong
belief in providence so that the yearbook, I produced it, you
know, I told you the story of how it came about. But then I got
many letters back that said, you know, this caused our family to
talk about this and this made a difference and this was a big
deal. I like to think that. I don't necessarily think that
that's what's going to happen. But yes->> Carlene Tinker: But that it was-- it was an unintended
consequence.
>> Diane Honda: Yeah. Yeah.
>> Carlene Tinker: And I think too that actually is something
that I am hoping that through this project people will read your
story as well as the others I've interviewed. And this will open
up a lot of people to in their families talk about something
that was very shameful. But now it's time to talk about it to
our family and to our descendants. And then the kids will
understand where their parents and grandparents and great
grandparents be.
>> Diane Honda: Yes. And I also think what's really important is
the Japanese American National Museum. Because I think as they
portray what happened to Japanese American culture in America, I
think that that's a very important place.
>> Carlene Tinker: Right. Right. Well, thank you so much, Diane.
I’ve really enjoyed talking to you and hearing your story and
I'm sure others will as well. It's been a great contrast between
my experience growing up and I-- How much older than I am. I'm
going to be 80 years this year.
>> Diane Honda: So, I'm 65. Fifteen years.
>> Carlene Tinker: Fifteen years difference. And that gives you
an idea of what history does in just--15 years is not very much.
But your experiences are much more positive than mine and I
learn->> Diane Honda: Well, yeah. And I'm going to say one of the
things I was fortunate even the Vietnam experience, when I was-went to the Vietnam wall, well, I went with a bunch of teacher
friends. And the ones that are just one year older than me, they
graduated in '71, they had many friends on the wall. They
experienced it and their experiences with the Vietnam War. And
all that meant was very different from me who graduate in just
one later in '72 because they ended the draft.
>> Carlene Tinker: OK.
>> Diane Honda: And so all my friends that if they did go they
volunteered and they did not go en masse. And so, I do not know
anyone on that wall. So, it is history does play a big
difference in->> Carlene Tinker: Yeah. Yes.
>> Diane Honda: And I was fortunate to be born or maybe I just—
blinders on, I don't know.
>> Carlene Tinker: Now, OK, well thank you. Is there anything
that you would like to add? Is there something that really
burning that I did not address?
>> Diane Honda: Well, I want to spend some time to thank you for
doing this. This is really an amazing project that you're doing.
And I really appreciate what you are doing to add to the
Japanese American experience and history for perpetuity I
suppose or as long as videos last.
>> Carlene Tinker: Well, thank you. I appreciate that and
hopefully the project will continue after I've stopped
volunteering. I think it's worthwhile. And certainly there are a
lot of people now who are willing to talk. So, thank you very
much and I appreciate your comment.
>> Diane Honda: Thanks, Carlene.