<Begin Segment 10>

AI: And where were you living, at that time, in your junior high years?

KK: We lived in a... we lived in several different places, but the first one was at the Guyette area. And then we moved. As you followed the lease, sometimes, you'd go from different farm property. And we, we lived closer into Wapato, but it was a good six, seven miles from Wapato. And we would take the bus, I remember. In those days they allowed high school boys to drive buses, I remember. [Laughs] And I don't think they are allowed to do that now. I think they have to have certified drivers. But I remember our, one of our, my... I don't think he was... I can't remember whether he was my classmate or not, but he was somebody in high school who drove the bus. And the bus tipped over, I remember, and the top came off, which was a good thing because we sort of scrambled out. But... so they had accidents in those days, too.

AI: Well, now, you would have been going to junior high in, what? About the late 1920s or so?

KK: I graduated in 1934, so probably in the late, in the late '20s. Uh-huh.

AI: I was wondering... you had mentioned, also, about that you had not gone to daily Japanese language school, but sometimes you would go to Saturday school?

KK: Yes.

AI: Could you just say a little bit about that? What that was like?

KK: I don't have much memory because... and, you know, that's why... of that. We had, by that time it was Mr. and Mrs. Frank Fukuda that had come to be the instructors of the Japanese language school. And they would have Saturday classes, and I remember coming to them. But I wish I were more Japanese proficient. But I, it's probably because I didn't attend every day like most of the people who lived in the area and went to school for eight years or more. They graduated from eighth grade, in after-school, Japanese language schools.

AI: I think I read that Mr. Fukuda also was the coach for the baseball?

KK: Yes, coach of the baseball, and --

AI: Could you tell a little bit about the baseball?

KK: Oh. The, the baseball team was, was the one that has the acclaim because it became, it was organized, and after Mr. Fukuda came, he was an excellent coach. And he had, the Japanese Nippons became a very good baseball team and joined the local valley league and got in a, after several years got the championship and also participated in games with other Nisei baseball teams throughout the Northwest. And participated in their annual... I think it was Fourth of July tournaments in Seattle. I remember coming to them. And I think the Wapato Nippons has taken a couple of trophies in the Seattle area. And that's how we got to meet Japanese from other areas. So, in the Northwest you, either through the church conferences, young people's conferences, or through baseball or some other form of athletics that you got to know the Japanese from the other areas. And I think that was the Issei way of getting the young people to meet each other, which was very wise.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2002 Densho. All Rights Reserved.