<Begin Segment 4>

AI: And you mentioned that your family was farming there.

RM: Yes.

AI: So were you living all together with your paternal grandfather --

RM: Uh-huh.

AI: -- your father, and mother, and then maybe you could describe what your house looked like there.

RM: Well, I have a picture there, about a four-room house. But not too many were in the house because my younger brother weren't born when I was there, when my grandfather was there, but he left for Japan, and, to retire in, at a young age. He retired about fifty because...

AI: Well, excuse me, but when you were very young, do you remember just speaking Japanese at home? Did you speak any English at home before you went to school?

RM: Well, the nouns, you know, the English word. But I think it was the Japanese because I wasn't aware of what I was speaking, but I know family spoke Japanese and oh, of course, a common name was "bread" and "butter," "bacon," these things in English but as far as speech goes, it was the Japanese.

AI: So, when you started grammar school, then, what grammar school did you go to?

RM: Fruitland Grammar School across the Los Angeles River, in Los Angeles County.

AI: Do you remember having any difficulty there because Japanese was your main language?

RM: Well, it started with the small first-grader, so with the neighbor kids, some spoke English, so I understand, just didn't use it, just hearing. So I didn't have much difficulty, I don't think, because now I called it, we had some play... but I don't remember using the English or, I don't think... I know it was not Japanese, though. I think I understood that.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2003 Densho. All Rights Reserved.