<Begin Segment 3>

SS: Did you work as a young boy? Did you help out?

HW: Well, yes, typically. I think it was true with most all families, Japanese families, that there was only one kitty in the house, one pot. Money went into one bank account. That's the way it was. And we never asked for any money unless we really needed it for something which Father or Mother didn't foresee, you know. But that's the way it was. That's the way it was until I was drafted into the army. I never had an account of my own.

SS: What about school, what was school like? You said that you didn't really start learning English until first grade. What was that like? Was it a large school?

HW: Well, it was a, you know, a typical size city elementary school. One of the things that I remember is that I had to go to the bathroom the first day. And I went in there and all the girls ran out. [Laughs] Of course, we had, you know, a two-holer at home in the outhouse.

SS: Do you have fond memories of those years?

HW: Oh yeah, I think so. I think I got real excited when I began to master the alphabet and the pronunciation of letters and words. And the teacher was getting into more complex words, and she wrote a word up on the blackboard, and I raised my hand up real quick, so she called on me and I said, "An-sweared." The word was "answered." [Laughs] Course, I had been hearing about the swearing and things like that as a kid, you know, on a farm. So I thought I had it right, but man, I never forgot that one.

SS: Did you like school?

HW: Well, yeah, school was easy for me.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 1996 Densho. All Rights Reserved.