<Begin Segment 10>

MA: Did you notice any changes in the way the Caucasian people treated you or treated maybe the Japanese people in the community?

MM: No, I really... I really have to admit that the hakujins were really nice to the Nihonjins, I mean, I thought. And I don't know of any, unless, you know, there's always some of these people who, who don't know any better that will call you all kinds of names. 'Cause, see, my son, Ridge, when he went to grade school, when he first started school, he was the only Nihonjin in the whole... 'cause we lived out in the valley. And he came home and he didn't say anything at first, and then afterwards he, he said, "Mommy, I think I'll go to school someplace." And I said, "What do you mean, 'go to school someplace'?" He said, "Someplace else." And then he heard my mother telling me that I should take him to the grade school in town where all the other Nihonjin no kids are, and I said, "No, Mama," I said, "Ridgie's got to grow up in the, with the hakujin no people, and all the hakujin people there are nice." Well, a little girl that lives, not behind us, but kitty-corner from, their family and our family are real close. Anyway, that girl told her mother that, all the things that were happening. They called him "Jap" and all that, those kids, and I kept telling Ridge that those kind of people, they have parents that don't know any better. They shouldn't teach their kids to talk like that. And so that girl would come home and tell her mother everything what those kids were calling Ridge. And then the janitor liked Ridge real well, so he would follow Ridge every time Ridge went into the bathroom. [Laughs] And when they all go in, he'd follow him in there, act like he's doing something in there, to protect Ridge. Because there were some kids that were, they were calling him "Jap" and all that. But I told Ridge that you got to, when you get older, and it's not going to stop here. Those kids, they don't know any better. And I said, "Look at your good friends. They don't do anything, they don't call you anything like that. It's because their mother and father don't" -- it was hard. It almost, I almost had tears in my eyes, you know. And so I told my husband at that time -- he was still alive -- I told him, "Now and then, you should kind of mention it to him," because I said, "I've talked a lot about this and that and things are gonna happen."

Then after that, see, all his friends were hakujin no friends, 'cause that's, all hakujins, and then went to junior high school, his best friends were always the president of the class and all that. And then went to high school, and still, he was the only Nihonjin. But then that fellow got to be president of the high school, one of his best friends. And now, it's hard for Ridge to go to Japanese things. [Laughs] It's kind of bad because, you know, I was, I go to Japanese church and I used to take him to church, you know, but he has nothing but hakujin no friends. And I said, "Well, why don't you go to church sometime and join?" "Oh, I don't know, Mom. I'm a good boy and I don't do anything bad, I don't think I have to go to church." [Laughs] Smart aleck. But he's just been born and raised with hakujins, so that's the way it goes. And all his friends are hakujins, but he just... oh, well.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.