Education: One of the Rest

Sixteen-year-old Johnny Aiso was an honor student at Hollywood (Calif.) High School when he won the district oratory contest in 1926. His subject was "The American Constitution and What It Means to Me." By winning the district title, Johnny had put himself in the running for the state championship and the national finals in Washington, D.C. But there was one thing that set Johnny Aiso apart, or so some Hollywood people thought: though he was U.S.-born and raised, Johnny was the son of a Japanese gardener.

Johnny was persuaded to decline the honor in favor of his runner-up. His runner-up won the California title. As a consolation prize, Nisei John Fujio Aiso (rhymes with why so) was allowed to go to Washington for the ride.

In Washington, Johnny met Japanese Ambassador Tsuneo Matsudaira who advised him to get a change from the Pacific Coast atmosphere with its anti-Nisei discrimination and see something of the "older America." The ambassador remarked that his predecessor had received an honorary degree from Brown University. Johnny Aiso went to Brown, graduated cum laude in 1931, delivered the class valedictory. Then he went back to California, became a lawyer in Los Angeles.

When World War II came, U.S. Citizen John Aiso entered the U.S. Army as a private, rose to lieutenant colonel, highest rank attained by any Nisei.

Two years ago Brown University decided to give John Aiso an honorary Master of Arts degree. He had to decline for lack of time to make the trip to Providence for the university convocation. But one day last month, when Alumnus Aiso and some 90 other old Browns turned up for a dinner at Los Angeles' University Club, Brown President Henry Wriston called a special convocation on the spot. Said Wriston: "The mountain has come to Mohamed." He awarded Aiso his honorary degree: for his war record, his example in race relations, his skill at the law. Said 40-year-old Johnny Aiso: "It is one more little action which helps us feel that we belong as an integral part . . . treated as one of the rest, not just tolerated."

This week, as Brown officially announced the award, Aiso had a fresh satisfaction.

Three days after the honorary degree, the crusty Los Angeles Bar Association reversed its Occidentals-only policy, started off by taking him in as a member.