Henry “Hank” Oyama papers

Henry “Hank” Oyama was born in 1926 and grew up in Mexico. He is of Japanese descent, and his first language is Spanish. His father died before he was born, and he was raised by his mother and maternal grandfather in Nogales. When his grandfather passed away, he and his mother moved to Tucson where they lived until the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941. Oyama was fifteen years old at this time, and he and his mother were interned in concentration camps along with thousands of other Japanese and Japanese Americans. After the release of the internees, Oyama and his mother moved to Excelsior Springs, MO. Upon graduation from high school, he enlisted in the U.S. Army, and he was assigned to the Panama Canal Zone because his first language was Spanish.

In 1947, Oyama left the army and returned to civilian life where he earned a BA and MA in Education from the University of Arizona. Throughout college he worked for Tucson Newspapers, Inc. In 1952, he began his teaching career at Safford Junior High School in Tucson. Three years later, Oyama began his efforts in bilingual education when he was selected as a faculty member at the brand new Pueblo High School. At Pueblo, Oyama designed and executed a plan to teach both Spanish and English to native Spanish speakers. Through this program, he became involved with two U.S. senators who introduced national legislation to provide funding for bilingual education. At the age of 33, Oyama fell in love with Mary Ann Jordan. However, there was still a law in effect that banned marriage between Asians and Caucasians. After taking their battle to court, the two were married in 1959. Their first child died of leukemia, and they went on to adopt four children. They were married until Mary Ann’s death from heart failure in 1987 at the age of 55.

In 1970, he left Pueblo High School and began working for the Bilingual and International Studies at Pima Community College, becoming the dean of that program in 1978. He retired after 22 years at Pima Community College.