<Begin Segment 7>

TI: So Hillyard was about how far from downtown Spokane?

FS: About eight miles.

TI: Okay, but you did take frequent trips to downtown Spokane?

FS: Well, not, not frequent. When... when we were kids and we had to go to Japanese language school, I can't remember the name of the thing now, Kokugo Gakko. Anyway, so in the, in the, during the week, during the school, during the school year, we would have to go down on Saturdays and suffer.

TI: Take the bus down to...

FS: Take the bus or the streetcar to start with, and then the bus.

TI: Into downtown.

FS: Downtown to the, to the Japanese Methodist Mission, and it was just, just a battle royale every Saturday with Mom and Dad, but we would go.

TI: And this is you and all your siblings would go down?

FS: Yeah, well, let's see. I can't remember who. I know my sister was there and my brother Roy, and I don't know whether George, my oldest brother, had to go or not. But then finally, Floyd grew up, and so we, would have to ride the bus down there, and from the bus you had to walk four or five blocks up to the Methodist Mission on Third Avenue, and we would suffer through this thing with the other kids who didn't live close to the Methodist Mission, they were farm kids, primarily. And then during the summertime, we would have to go every day for, I don't know, three or four weeks or a month. This was the, just the real shame of it, because all our friends out in Hillyard were off for the summer, and they would swim and hike and we'd have to spend most of the day or half of the day going downtown. And it was, when you think about it, as little money as my dad made, we had, he had to pay for us, you know, he had to pay whatever tuition that was necessary to pay for the teacher. But I don't think we learned a thing.

TI: So he, so by spending money, this was a very important thing to him.

FS: It was important to him, education...

TI: And so he really wanted you to learn Japanese.

FS: Of course, I don't think my father ever got through grade school, I don't know. But my mother went, my mother graduated from high school in Japan, which was unusual for a girl then in that, in that era. So, but they were very insistent that we do this, and we, and learning the Japanese language is important to them so we could, obviously so we could communicate with them.

TI: So when you went down to Japanese school, was it at this point that you got to know or mingle with the Japanese from downtown Spokane, or how, how did that work out?

FS: It didn't work very well. We were, we were outlanders, you know, and somehow we got picked on, as I recall. I just... [laughs] we did not get along well, was my recollection. Of course, we were outnumbered to start with, and so the... down there it used to, we used to scuffle with them once in a while.

TI: So when you thought of the, sort of the downtown -- I'm not sure what you called them -- "downtowners" or whatever.

FS: Yeah, whatever, something, well, we, that was a politer...

TI: [Laughs] So, I mean, were they, did they tend to be more city folk, more rougher, or how would you describe them?

FS: Oh, we were just outsiders. If they, they ignored you, mostly.

TI: And this was true for all the ones that did the Saturday Japanese school, that you guys were sort of like this different group?

FS: Uh-huh, the farm, the farm kids, yeah. I don't recall the, what kids, if those kids from the railroad camp even went to that school. I don't remember that, but I know we used to have to get on the bus and go down.

TI: So did they think of you more as almost like country bumpkins, kind of?

FS: I suppose. I think, they just thought --

TI: Because of the farm kids?

FS: We, they just thought, we were just... you know, we were outsiders, basically.

TI: And how would this sort of tension show up? I mean, when you say they would bully or outnumbered you, what would happen?

FS: Oh, they would, of course, they, most of all and worst of all, I think they tend to ignore you, they were clannish and all that. And they would do their thing among themselves, and we were just outsiders.

TI: Now, did the sort of elders in the community, the Isseis, when they saw this, did they try to do anything to kind of bridge the, this gap between the outside community with the downtown community kids?

FS: Not to my knowledge. No, I think not. I don't think it was important to them. You know, in those days, everybody had their problems, you know, and kids' problems were something else. [Laughs]

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.