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TI: Okay, so, Min, we're gonna get started again. And I wanna get back more focusing on you and your life in Kent, growing up as, as a child. And, why don't we start off in terms of play friends. Who did you play with, growing up with?

MT: I went to, I attended the Kent Elementary School and the junior high school. And I graduated Kent High School in 1937. My early recollection is the friends that I had prior to school were the Japanese kids that were neighbors. And since Dad had a sawmill we knew a lot of people around there, so a lot of people would visit Dad and Mother and bring their kids along. So that was about, my friendship was... but there were more than hakujin kids, it was Japanese kids that we became friendly with.

TI: And so the sawmill would become sort of a play area? You guys would play?

MT: Yeah, we'd play hide-and-go-seek and, and all kinds of games in the sawmill because it was all shut down and it wasn't dangerous. But, like I, I mentioned, getting back to my brother to show how much he loved that fishing, in addition to taking Dr. Taylor's fish out, but he'd go fishing, like I mentioned, to the creek, or the White River down there, we call it "shirakawa." And, but he would, he would, just loved fishing and he would never come back and Mother, it'd get dark and Mother'd worry about if he'd drowned or something like that. But he'd be scared to come home and so what he'd do is he'd sleep in the sawmill. [Laughs] And Mother would have to go look for him and she'd find him in the sawmill and say, "Well, it's okay, come on home." But that's how much he really loved fishing and it stayed with him all his life. And that's the part of the story of the sawmill and his life. But she, she, many, many times had to go find him in the sawmill because he was scared to come home after fishing so late. And so, but she said she'd take him to jail if he sort of stayed out any longer. He gave Mother so much trouble. And so I always remember that she said, "I will take you to the jail, city jail in Kent. And she'd threaten him that way but he never got over, he kept fishing and fishing. And, like I mentioned, that at Payette, on the Snake River every day he was there and he'd have to go, Mother'd have to go get him to eat lunch or to eat dinner and at nighttime he would still be fishing.

TI: Well, now, so, going to school for you, did your friends, who you, your friends were, did that change?

MT: Yeah. As I, as we started elementary school I had to walk from the west side of Kent to the elementary school which was probably around, about two miles. And we walked down the main street of Kent, which was Meeker Street. But we'd go past Mooney's house. And so my good friend was Dave Mooney and George Mooney. Dave Mooney later became the mayor of Kent and he was the youngest mayor in the United States at that time. And he kept on in politics and became King County Commissioner and did very, very well until he died, oh, quite a few years ago. And his brother George had a radio station afterwards, down in Tennessee. He went out in that way. But I always remember that Mr. and Mrs. Mooney, they were Issei, I don't know if it was Germany or where, but they always, when I went by there to pick up George and Dave to go to elementary school, they always invited me in and had a candy or a soft drink or something like that. But they were real, real nice people. And although Dave's dad was a street cleaner in Kent, and poor during the Depression days, he was able to buy a Boy Scout uniform for George. George was the older one. And so they bought George a summer uniform and a winter uniform. But I always remember Mr. and Mrs. Mooney was... Mr. Mooney always made sure that if it was a summer Boy Scout outing that we went to, Court of Honor, anything like that, that I would wear the winter uniform and George would wear the summer one. Then when it, and then when it was wintertime, George would wear the winter uniform and I'd wear the summer uniform. But the father always made sure that George loaned me the Boy Scout uniform. And that was when Boy Scouts was Troop 450 in Kent and I started boy scouting at that time. So my early life was elementary school, but the, my life as a Boy Scout, which helped me, I think, you mentioned about growing up fast, a lot of the badges that I got in the scouting really helped me and, even in the army, I think Boy Scouting never left me. And I always was appreciative of the fact that Mother made me go to the Boy Scouts and keep up with that.

TI: Was that pretty common for other, say Niseis, to be in Boy Scouts?

MT: No. I was about the only one there because the other Nihonjins were all outlying. We was the only ones that lived in Kent. So, outlying farms well, from O'Brien, down that way, but, they wouldn't have the opportunity to come to become a Boy Scout or join organizations like that.

TI: Well, how about having such a close friend being Caucasian, was that common for other Niseis?

MT: No. Usually the Niseis pretty well stayed with the Nisei group in school, and fairly true through elementary school, junior high school and high school. Most of the kids, they were bused in from the farm, but when it was rest period or play period or project period, pretty well the Nisei stayed together. But, it's hard to explain, but we were closer to each other than we were with the hakujin children in there. So...

TI: Well, I'm curious, your relationship with you and George, were there ever any problems, either people teasing or making comments to George about having a Japanese friend, or you getting teased by having a Caucasian friend?

MT: There was to a certain extent. It was very little. I was glad I was able to enjoy the friendship. But somewhere along the line we would run into hakujins that would tease George and because he had a Nihonjin friend, or vice versa. But I was able to start judo when I was about six, six years old. Dad made me go to judo class. So we told 'em that, when they started to tease us or abuse us we'd say, "Well, we know judo," and then they'd leave us alone. So that was one of our protections that we had as Nihonjins. So we used that all along in elementary school and junior high and some into high school when the hakujin guys would get boisterous. And so, but we pretty well, I think Nihonjins stayed at Nihonjins.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2003 Densho. All Rights Reserved.