<Begin Segment 16>

TY: But at -- and then we went to judo and kendo, and so --

JY: Boy Scouts.

TY: We, we did get out quite a bit.

MY: Boy Scouts. You played the drums.

TY: Boy Scouts, oh.

MY: Yeah.

TY: I was in the Boy Scouts.

MY: You were in the drum and bugle band.

TY: I was in the drum and bugle corps. And in fact, the movie last night showed the Potlatch parade, and I was, and it, and I was very, very short. I mean, very short and tiny. And, so when you look at the drum and bugle corps coming down the street, you can spot me right away because here I am, very... [Laughs] But that's, I think that's all I really remember about -- but I do remember that May was not included in the group when we went out to do things like this.

AI: And did you ever complain to your folks or --

MY: Well, yeah. I remember --

TY: Mightily, huh?

MY: Well, yeah. And she always said, "Well, because they're boys." You know, I didn't get --

TY: Well, did you, in judo and kendo, well, they had a lot of --

MY: "You're only a girl."

TY: Huh? Yeah.

MY: "You're only a girl."

TY: Well, we used to go -- remember they used to have tournaments periodically? And -- you know, at Nihon Kan. Nippon Kan?

MY: Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

TY: And gathering? We -- did you go to the tournaments?

MY: No.

TY: You stayed home, huh?

MY: Uh-huh.

TY: Well, I don't remember you being there, but --

MY: No. No, I think the whole idea was that she wanted to keep me away from crowds.

TY: Hmm.

MY: So Mom didn't go either. I just was home with her.

TY: Yeah. That's right. Dad, Dad would be the only one there.

MY: Yeah. --

TY: But --

MY: And large crowds, she thought that there were a lot of germs --

TY: Well, when they did --

MY: -- she was really germ-conscious, you know. She --

TY: Yeah, when you had, we did, we were doing kendo and judo, they had tournaments quite frequently. And the most of the time it was at Nihon Kan. And, and I just don't remember her being there with us.

MY: Well, we used to go to those weddings, 'cause Dad and Mom were nako-, you know, they were go-betweens?

TY: Nakodo? Yeah.

MY: And I was there at those because I was always in those wedding pictures.

TY: That's right. Well, sometime you were in the procession, too.

MY: I know. And we didn't even know who those people -- we have all those pictures. We don't know these, who these people are. [Laughs]

TY: Yeah, well Dad --

MY: But Dad and Mom --

TY: Dad was the nakodo for a lot of fam-, a lot of weddings and so, a go-between or whatever you call it in English. And so...

JY: Matchmaker.

TY: Yeah, I do remember.

MY: Matchmakers.

TY: Matchmaker. Yeah.

MY: Nakodo, yeah. Nakodo, yeah.

TY: Nakodo.

MY: Yeah, uh-huh.

TY: Right? Yeah. But --

MY: It's kind of amazing the number of times they --

TY: Oh, yeah.

MY: -- there was just a lot of wedding pictures that --

TY: People we don't even know, right?

MY: -- know, right. But it was -- yeah. It was interesting.

Jeni Y: Tosh, didn't you say the judo came in handy when --

TY: I'm sorry?

Jeni Y: Didn't you say your judo came in handy when there was a child in elementary school who teased you?

TY: Oh.

MY: When you were about eleven, you said.

TY: Yeah, yeah. Well, when I -- so what, was I still in Pacific School? No, I must have been in Beacon Hill school.

MY: No, you were in Beacon Hill school, yeah.

TY: When I was about eleven, this one hakujin boy, he used to pick on me a lot. And he was about two heads taller than I was. And he was always picking on me because I -- maybe it was because I was so tiny and so "pickable," I guess. [Laughs]

JY: Pickable? [Laughs]

TY: And, and I, I had already started judo then. And, and one thing that the instructor in judo always stressed was never, you know, get in a fight and use judo. I mean, it could be dangerous. So don't -- you be careful how you handle yourself. And, but this kid was so persistent that one day I just grabbed him and I threw him over my shoulder. And he, and he's -- and it was just -- I wish I had a camera then. The look and expression on his face was completely stunned.

MY: Stunned.

TY: He was just like this on the ground. [Laughs] And I was telling everybody last night that's the last time he picked on me. He left me alone for the rest of the school year.

MY: So that's --

TY: Yeah, that time judo came in handy, but I think that's the only time that I really used it for that kind of a purpose.

MY: Last night we were trying to think of incidents, you know, whether... we were trying to think of incidents of that sort in Beacon Hill school --

TY: Yeah, yeah.

MY: -- where we were taunted or --

TY: But I, and I'm not sure whether he picked on me because I'm a, I was a Nihonjin or because I was --

MY: Because you were tiny.

TY: -- my guess is because I was so tiny and so vulnerable-looking that I think I was a -- his target. And, and I don't think it was because I was a Nihonjin, but, you know, who knows?

MY: Yeah.

TY: Maybe a little of both. I don't know. But that's the only incident I remember in school that was very negative.

MY: Yeah.

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 2002 Densho. All Rights Reserved.