Densho Digital Archive - George Yamada Interview (denshovh-ygeorge

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MA: What were your experiences like at the Japanese language school? Did you go every day?

GY: Oh, we had Mr. Nozaki, Mrs. Nishibue, Reverend Taro Goto, teach Japanese. It was nothing like the coast, from what I could gather, the way Japanese was taught in the coast.

MA: What were the differences that you heard?

GY: I think they had grades over there, whatever grades it was depending on your skill. But I remember us just horsing around, I remember the Reverend throwing eraser boards at us to get us to be quiet or pay attention. I remember the Reverend hitting us with a ruler; we weren't paying attention. Reverend Taro Goto, loved that guy. He was from Hokkaido as I recall, born and raised in Hokkaido. His brother was also a minister in Spokane. And Mr. Nozaki was a very stern teacher. Yeah, none of his kids are, they're all gone now, and Mrs. (Nishibue), her husband Mr. (Nishibue) used to always call me up, says, "Oi, Tatsuo, sakana tsuri ikitai ka," and I used to love fishing. I think it was all made possible by Mr. Nishibue, Mii-chan's father, taking me fishing. And he took his son but he always depended on me. I never knew how to drive, I was too young, but I guess I just enjoyed fishing in north Idaho. He, I would get in his car with our bento, you know, nigiri, and we would fish all day long. And some days it was so windy out there, huge dangerous waves, that they had to go to shore on a different shore and stay there to wait the weather out. And I remember a couple of times where they had to stay there 'til late hours before the wind subsided. But oh, yeah, I couldn't wait for him to pick me up to go fishing. We went silver, what we called silver trout, kokanee fishing, but we called them silver. The way he would say it was, "Oi, tsuruba fishing ichitai ka," bass fishing.

MA: How many fish would you usually catch in a, in a day of fishing?

GY: In those days fifty was the limit for silvers, and every one of the silvers was I'd say thirteen and a half, fourteen and a half inches long. Every one of them; not a one was under fourteen inches. And fifty was the limit. The most I ever caught was thirty-seven or so. I mean, how many fish can you eat? We didn't have a freezer.

MA: What did you do with the extra fish?

GY: Give it to everybody. Everybody, I mean, we just, it was just a real good, productive lake. It isn't now, but in those days, they had commercial fishing for these silvers. And it was just a delicious fish. Oh, I'd like to have some, I still love to fish now, however, I'm primarily a fly fisherman. I do enjoy trolling for silvers, that type of silvers.

MA: What are your memories of Mrs. Nishibue, Mii Tai's mother, who was also a teacher, right, at the school?

GY: Yes, she's quite a lady; she was quite a lady. Whenever we came into town, for some reason or another, Mrs. Nishibue knew we were in town, and she always had some kind of meal ready for us, my wife and me and my family. I -- oh yeah, my mother was downtown at the hotel working, so Mrs. Nishibue always took us in for a short period. Oh yeah, that obasan, ojisan were very, very dear friends.

MA: How was she as a, as a teacher for you, the language school?

GY: I never had her. I had Mr. Nozaki, and he was very strict, and I had Reverend Goto, and Mrs. Nishibue, I wrote a letter in Japanese to her one time, and she wrote back. I used the word "aikawarazu." I can't remember how I did it, but, "Aikawarazu watakushi no whatever," you know. But that was the beginning, opening sentence in Japanese. And she sent me the letter back all corrected. [Laughs] And she said, "This aikawarazu, the ai that you are using is 'love.' And ai, although ai means 'love,' the word you want to use is a different kanji writing." So that's, that's the way she was, you know, real lovable lady. [Laughs]