<Begin Segment 29>

AI: Let's not get to far ahead of that, because I wanted to just go back just a little bit. Because I didn't get a chance to ask Joe for some of his earlier memories as a young kid, growing up there on Beacon Hill, and some of the things that might stand out in your mind as you were in grade school.

JY: Yeah, I just have, kind of snapshots of things that happened. I remember Beacon Hill grammar school very well. I went to it until I was, in the fourth grade when we were evacuated. And I remember playing sports. My best friend in, at Beacon Hill was a guy named Fumio Sakamoto, who was a super athlete. And he was a year older than me. So he taught me how to play various sports and so forth. And I had another friend named Arthur Takeuchi, who lived right, Takeuchi, who lived right down the hill from --

TY: Two blocks from us, yeah.

JY: -- just two blocks away from us. And then I had some Italian friends who were across the street. And that's, those are the only friends that I remember. When I came back from Japan -- I don't know if my first language was English or not. Do you know? Was it?

MY: Yeah, I wasn't...

JY: Well, I can remember my mother telling the story about when I came back from Japan, somebody spoke to me in English. You know, the same trip. And apparently I said something like, "Anna koto wakaranai." Or something --

MY: And so you already lost your --

JY: Saying, "I don't understand." Because I guess at that point in the brief time I was in Japan, I had just completely switched over to Japanese. So I don't know how long it took me, but by the time I went to grammar school, I think I was able to speak English, I'm sure.

MY: Yeah, because you were already --

TY: You were in, you were in Japan a year plus, and so during that time, you just switched over to English, Japanese then.

JY: Yeah, apparently so.

MY: Three, from three, that's a pretty crucial period, from three to four.

JY: Yeah. But, but with them, I was speaking English anyway, I'm sure. And so I must have picked English back up again quick enough by the time I went to kindergarten.

MY: So we were speaking in English even when we were in Japan, with each other.

JY: Is that right?

MY: Yeah.

JY: Well, maybe, I don't know. You know, I don't remember it. I just remember Mom saying that I had completely forgotten English.

MY: Yeah, but then, while I was at the Kitazakis', you went back with Mom to Hakata. So we were separated at that point. And then I remember going back to Hakata, and we went to Russia.

JY: Oh, really?

MY: For one -- no --

TY: You went to where?

MY: No, we went to Korea. Because Korea, because that was in North Korea.

TY: You were in North Korea then? Is that --

MY: That was North Korea, where Uncle was.

TY: Oh, is that right?

MY: It was called Keijo at that time. North Korea. And so we took a day trip across the border.

TY: To Russia?

MY: Yeah, is Korea right next to Russia?

TY: Yeah.

MY: Yeah, right, okay. I don't have my geography straight. We went on a day trip, on a sightseeing trip. And I had a picture of us, or of me, coming down a flight of stairs, it's some kind of a --

TY: Shrine, or something?

MY: -- official building. You know, when they have those really large, long stairs coming down, the stairs. But that's the only recollection I have of that trip. It's just the weirdest thing.

TY: I'll be darned.

MY: And Joe doesn't remember probably at all, but my uncle, I think our uncle, our uncle decided that he would take us on a day trip and we went to Russia, and went on a sightseeing tour and then came back. And then we came back to Japan together. And then I -- and then I went to school. And I think you -- I can't remember now whether you guys came home before I did, or what, at that time.

JY: I don't know.

MY: When you and Mom came home together?

JY: I don't know. My recollections of, like for example Beacon Hill was --

MY: Or he was staying, or you stayed, yeah.

JY: -- when I was in like the third grade already. So I just don't remember early days.

<End Segment 29> - Copyright © 2002 Densho. All Rights Reserved.