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AI: Well, I'd like to ask you about your early childhood.

MH: My early childhood centered around my home and the church, the Japanese Methodist Church, of which this cousin was the pastor for a while. And at that time there was quite a good number, good number of congregation and, of course, their offspring. There are many, many pictures of this, the church as a whole showing a lot of (...) children, and they had wonderful, wonderful Christian education programs for us, which was a great help. Not only that, as we grew up as teenagers we had the conflict of two cultures, the Japanese culture that our parents tried to sustain in us as well as faced with the American culture when we went to school. The thing that helped us bridge these two were some of our wonderful Sunday school teachers that were supplied by the First United Methodist Church downtown, our mother church. And some of their young people came and helped us. Taught Sunday school and nurtured us in our youth program, like I remember Ms. Ackley, who was a West High schoolteacher, but she gave up her Sunday, came to our church and had a class of young girls, and I was among them, which was a great help in understanding and bridging the two (cultures). And our boys of our age, had the two Bach brothers who came also. And these were things that nurtured, colored our thinking and our projection into the future. And we greatly -- as I look back now, (...) appreciate, and it probably has a great deal to do with how things have turned out for us.

AI: Well, in fact, speaking of the two cultures and the understanding, I was wondering, did you first speak Japanese in the home?

MH: We spoke Japanese in the home, although my father understood English, not fluently, but enough to get along, because of his business contact. But my mother did not attempt to learn English. But her ears were well-attuned that she understood most of the things that we were saying, and then we picked up phrases in Japanese. And then we were all required to go to the Japanese school after our public school, which was just up the street so it wasn't too bad. So that's how we kind of learned our Japanese, and then, you know... [laughs]

AI: Well, tell me a little bit about your early grammar school experiences.

MH: Grammar school, I was... I was trying to think. I don't have too much recollection. We attended grammar school in Bailey Gatzert school, and that was something else. Before that it was down on Main Street, but at that time we went to the Washington school. But when Bailey Gatzert school was built, we all went there. The one thing I remember was that when the school bell rang, (...) the children, the pupils of each room lined up at certain places outside the door and there was someone always playing some kind of a march music on the piano and as we marched in to the piano, and I was one of those that played the piano and played some marches. That's one of things that I remember. [Laughs]

AI: Well, how did you learn piano?

MH: Well, my mother insisted I took piano lessons from a very young, and I struggled with it although I did, music became my major.

AI: Now, after Bailey Gatzert school, where did you attend?

MH: From Bailey Gatzert school we went to Garfield High School, which was quite new. And it was quite a walk up to the... but it, we have very pleasant experiences there. There was not as many Japanese, I mean, Nisei students, but there was enough. I remember one year the school had a student participation program called Funfest, and one year the Japanese students' group got together and I think gave a play. And I'm trying to recall the name of the play, but I can't seem to (remember). And it was a wonderful experience, and we performed for the Funfest for the general public. I remember I was being a baroness or something, and Molly Fukutani was one of the ladies and she sang. And Yone Ota was the charming prince or something. And it was an interesting story that was portrayed all in Japanese costumes. So that's one of the functions. And then I took part in all the music functions, and Parker E. Cook had the choral group and Milford Kingsbury had the orchestra, and so it was a nice high school experience for me.

AI: Well, I'm wondering, when you were in high school, did you experience any kinds of prejudice or racial discrimination?

MH: I failed to have any feeling of discrimination. I just could not remember, because we participated in all these school, they, they just accepted us and we never thought -- so I personally have felt very, very... in fact, I can't think of any discriminatory experiences in my life at all through school, either. And so I have a hard time understanding that.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.