Densho Digital Archive - Marion Tsutakawa Kanemoto Interview (denshovh-kmarion-01-0008)

<Begin Segment 8>

AI: Well, so then it was 1938 when your family returned to Seattle.

MK: Right.

AI: And then you started the fifth grade then, back in Seattle? Is that right?

MK: Right. Well, then I really began to feel that I was behind. My English was not quite up to it. And so, it just seemed like when I went to Japan I was a little bit behind in my Japanese. When I came back to America I was behind in my English. So, it (...) seemed like, from there on, it was, I was always a little behind. And so it didn't do too much good in my, for my self-image, I think. So I was not the smartest kid on the block by any means.

AI: That sounds like it was a struggle, in fact.

MK: It was a struggle. And then, for my, again, my size, I was five foot four and a half, I kept growing and growing. My mother is only five, 5'1", but my father is 5'10", so I favored his side and I grew. So, you know that, I kind of stuck out in the Nikkei community, again.

AI: You must have been one of the tallest girls among the --

MK: There was maybe one or two that were about the same and the others were definitely (...) shorter. And definitely, the guys are always shorter. [Laughs]

AI: Well, so then, did you, you were in the fifth grade when, after you returned. And then you had sixth grade, or did you move on to a middle school in sixth grade?

MK: I moved on to Washington Junior High.

AI: Washington Junior High.

MK: Junior high, uh-huh. And so, I was, attended Washington Junior High the two years, not quite, missing by one month at the end, before evacuation. But I managed and I still kept up with the two bilingual languages.

AI: So, did you continue with Japanese language school all the way through those years?

MK: Yes, all those years. And Japanese school was very easy. It was my social school. [Laughs]

AI: Well, when you say it was easy and social school, could you say a little bit more about that?

MK: Well, as far as the academic, it was more primarily just reading and writing, not arithmetic, reading and writing. And so I didn't have the problem, because in Japan I had to focus and concentrate on that. And so it was easy so I didn't struggle as much as I was in the American school, math or even... science was not that bad, but math and English I think I always kind of struggled with.