Discover Nikkei Logo

https://www.discovernikkei.org/en/interviews/clips/214/

Teacher who helped with lisp

In the 8th grade, I had a very bad lisping. And I realized…I began to feel that I could not hope to become a lawyer unless I could overcome my lisping. I was very fortunate in having a teacher, Mrs. Hamada, who was my core (?) studies teacher—two periods a day—and she was my teacher for three years. And she understood what my frustrations were.

And she had me come over, and she told me, “Can you come over and help me this weekend? I want to do some things around the classroom.” And she would ask me to come with the pretext that I was going to go there to help her, and instead she wanted to spend time and have me read to her. And I don’t know how many books I read aloud to her. And she encouraged me to enter orator contests. She had me appointed as a defense attorney for our student court. And she really helped me to overcome some of the speech difficulty that I had.

Even after I left the Central Intermediate school, she encouraged me to continue to do speech. And when I represented my high school in Oahu finals, she would come and listen, and she would tell me, “Oh, I can’t imagine that I’m listening to the same George Ariyoshi.”


education teachers teaching

Date: December 15, 2003

Location: Hawai`i, US

Interviewer: Art Hansen

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum.

Interviewee Bio

George Ariyoshi was born in Honolulu in 1926. He overcame a childhood speech defect to enter the Military Intelligence Service language school after World War II and served the United States in Tokyo’s ruins. Returning home from occupied Japan, he moved to Michigan where he received undergraduate and law degrees.

He married Jean Hayashi in Hawai`i and, between 1954 and 1986, held elective offices there as a Democrat. He served three terms as Hawai`i’s governor, the first Japanese American nationwide to govern a state. By his own definition, Governor Ariyoshi was “a social liberal and a fiscal conservative.” The title of his 1997 memoir, With Obligation to All, summed up his personal and political philosophies. (December 2003)

James Hirabayashi
en
ja
es
pt

Little interaction with parents

(1926 - 2012) Scholar and professor of anthropology. Leader in the establishment of ethnic studies as an academic discipline

en
ja
es
pt
James Hirabayashi
en
ja
es
pt

Politics in ethnic studies

(1926 - 2012) Scholar and professor of anthropology. Leader in the establishment of ethnic studies as an academic discipline

en
ja
es
pt
James Hirabayashi
en
ja
es
pt

Center for Japanese American Studies in community

(1926 - 2012) Scholar and professor of anthropology. Leader in the establishment of ethnic studies as an academic discipline

en
ja
es
pt
James Hirabayashi
en
ja
es
pt

Involvement with ethnic studies

(1926 - 2012) Scholar and professor of anthropology. Leader in the establishment of ethnic studies as an academic discipline

en
ja
es
pt
James Hirabayashi
en
ja
es
pt

Testing assumptions of Japanese scholars

(1926 - 2012) Scholar and professor of anthropology. Leader in the establishment of ethnic studies as an academic discipline

en
ja
es
pt
Barbara Kawakami
en
ja
es
pt

Kids working hard

An expert researcher and scholar on Japanese immigrant clothing.

en
ja
es
pt
Barbara Kawakami
en
ja
es
pt

First day of school

An expert researcher and scholar on Japanese immigrant clothing.

en
ja
es
pt
Robert (Bob) Kiyoshi Okasaki
en
ja
es
pt

Grandmother's influence on decision to go to Japan

(b.1942) Japanese American ceramist, who has lived in Japan for over 30 years.

en
ja
es
pt
Wally Kaname Yonamine
en
ja
es
pt

Training for football by carrying 100-lb bags of grass over mountains

(b.1925) Nisei of Okinawan descent. Had a 38-year career in Japan as a baseball player, coach, scout, and manager.

en
ja
es
pt
Richard Kosaki
en
ja
es
pt

Teaching at the military language school during World War II

(b. 1924) Political scientist, educator, and administrator from Hawai`i

en
ja
es
pt
Richard Kosaki
en
ja
es
pt

Lesson learned from community college faculty

(b. 1924) Political scientist, educator, and administrator from Hawai`i

en
ja
es
pt
Richard Kosaki
en
ja
es
pt

Rewards of teaching

(b. 1924) Political scientist, educator, and administrator from Hawai`i

en
ja
es
pt
Mitsuo Ito
en
ja
es
pt

Japanese school

(b.1924) Japanese Canadian Nisei. Interpreter for British Army in Japan after WWII. Active in Japanese Canadian community

en
ja
es
pt
Shizuko Kadoguchi
en
ja
es
pt

Strict school policy of separating boys and girls in Japan

(b.1920) Japanese Canadian Nisei. Established the Ikenobo Ikebana Society of Toronto

en
ja
es
pt
Sam Naito
en
ja
es
pt

Growing up outside of Portland’s Japanese community

(b. 1921) Nisei businessman. Established "Made in Oregon" retail stores

en
ja
es
pt

Discover Nikkei Updates

NIKKEI CHRONICLES #14
Nikkei Family 2: Remembering Roots, Leaving Legacies
Baachan, grandpa, tía, irmão… what does Nikkei family mean to you? Submit your story!
SUPPORT THE PROJECT
Discover Nikkei’s 20 for 20 campaign celebrates our first 20 years and jumpstarts our next 20. Learn more and donate!
SHARE YOUR MEMORIES
We are collecting our community’s reflections on the first 20 years of Discover Nikkei. Check out this month’s prompt and send us your response!