<Begin Segment 3>

MA: Which language did you speak at home?

SO: We spoke mostly Japanese. We went to Japanese school after high school, we were off at three o'clock, and then at four o'clock we went to the Japanese language school and studied until five o'clock. So my mother couldn't speak English at all because she was home all the time and took care of the children and cooked, but my dad could speak broken English, he was pretty good at it.

MA: But mostly at home, you spoke Japanese?

SO: Yes, uh-huh. So we understand a little bit Japanese, but now I don't, I don't understand very much of it. I can understand it, but I can't speak it, that's what it is.

MA: Tell me about your experiences at Japanese language school.

SO: Well, it was at Japanese Mission, and that was the same place where we had our church, and it was right next to the Central Methodist Church. And...

MA: Was that downtown Spokane?

SO: Yes, it was right on Third Avenue, yes.

MA: How, how often did you go to class?

SO: Five days a week. Right after school we went there, and then we used to have (...) a baseball field right next to us, so the fellows used to play baseball. And there were, there was a ping pong table in the mission there, so in our spare time we would play ping pong and have a good time. [Laughs]

MA: Who were your teachers at the school?

SO: Oh, my. One was a Japanese teacher, he was about my father's age, I guess. But his daughter and I were about the same age. But I can't remember the others, there were several that taught, but this is the only one that I remembered, this person.

MA: What was the, at Japanese language school, what was the classroom environment like? Was it real strict, or was it kind of...

SO: Very strict. Yes, it was very strict, so we wouldn't dare whisper or anything. I guess we learned quite a bit, we were only... let me see, fourteen to eighteen years old, and so we learned quite a bit. I've forgotten quite a bit of it. [Laughs]

MA: Did you learn a lot of writing and reading, or was it a lot of oral...

SO: Yes, uh-huh. It was, we learned hiragana, now, that's the simplest Japanese, and then -- no, katakana's the simplest, and then hiragana. And then they had those difficult characters.

MA: Kanji?

SO: Kanji. That was hard to learn. [Laughs] It was real hard. But most of the Niseis speak more English now, you know, among ourselves, so it's kind of hard to remember.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.