<Begin Segment 12>

AI: So the, the two of you had started first grade together, and what, what elementary school was that? What grade school did you attend?

TY: Well, we went to Pacific School until we moved to Beacon Hill. And so we moved to Beacon Hill in 1932. No, wait a minute, now. You were born what month?

MY: '32.

JY: '32.

MY: May.

JY: May.

TY: May. And you were ten months old that --

MY: So it must have been 1931, it must have been.

TY: -- I remember, when we went up to Beacon Hill.

JY: We must have gone in late '31, then.

MY: And so, and the Pacific School at the house that we were in before at Remington Court and the one across the street --

TY: Yeah, two houses.

MY: -- the neighborhood was primarily Japanese.

TY: Yeah, our neighborhood was mostly, mainly --

MY: -- and all the, all the friends, Mom's friends, of course, were all Japanese.

TY: Right. I think a lot of, real -- on Fourteenth Avenue, in that area by Jefferson Street, that area is where we lived, and I think, I'd say maybe 60 percent, 70 percent were Japanese in that area -- living in that area.

AI: And when you were living in that area, do you ever recall going outside of that little neighborhood or outside of your school to a more mainstream white area at all, or did you pretty much stay in that neighborhood as little children?

TY: I think we stayed pretty much in the neighborhood.

MY: Yeah.

TY: We had a lot of Nisei friends, but real good acquaintances, I, the only one I can remember is one family. And we used to go to their house. They used to come to play at our house. The Katayamas?

MY: Uh-huh.

TY: But I think that they were, there were Japanese families living across the street from us in the corner house. And it was a large family, but I don't remember their names. I can't even imagine their faces now, right now. But for some reason, I don't know, we didn't play with them at all.

MY: No. But I, there were, there was a haku,- a hakujin family, a white family --

TY: Next door.

MY: -- living next door in Remington Court.

TY: Yeah. In Remington Court there was a hakujin family, living.

MY: Yeah, right.

TY: And I didn't, we didn't get to know them too well.

MY: No. Well, Mom was, you know, remember she, she reported --

TY: Yeah. [Laughs]

MY: -- Mom for, for being a neglectful --

TY: Yeah, I, I sure do, yeah.

MY: -- parent. So my mother just kept -- she thought the, the people were rather strange or dangerous.

TY: Yeah. But I, I don't even remember their faces. Do you?

MY: No, I don't.

TY: I don't either.

MY: I, and I remember that time. I only remember hearing about that, you know, the Halloween night --

TY: Yeah, yeah. And that incident --

MY: -- when, that was before Mike came. The incident when my mother, our mother went to visit a friend of hers -- left us. You know, put us to bed. And then she went to visit --

TY: Across the street, yeah.

MY: -- a friend across the street. And it turned out to be Halloween. And she, of course, she didn't know that. And so the doorbell rang, and, and I remember Tosh and I had, were in our nightgown. We were both in our nightgown. And we opened the door, and then there was a "Rah." You know, the kids were there with their masks. And we were standing there, just crying. And I, I don't really remember who came -- whether Mom just happened to come, maybe came later. But we just stood there and cried and cried and cried. And so the woman next door reported Mom as a neglectful parent or something, leaving two little kids at home by themselves, I guess. And so my mother just really stayed clear of, of them for -- kind of avoided. You know, as much as possible we just, we avoid these white people next door. But that was the only time I remember another, a people other than Japanese, other than Dad's co-, co-workers.

TY: Well, I know the house when we moved to across the street there was a hakujin living.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2002 Densho. All Rights Reserved.