<Begin Segment 19>

TI: And I'm curious, as you're going through school in these early days, what kind of student were you?

HS: Oh, I was just an average student, I think. I did, you know, I did well in school. As a matter of fact, it was, it was common knowledge that the Japanese kids all did well. They expected you to do well. It was considered that you'd be, you're the top or the top of the class, and certainly the top student in our school was Japanese. But in each class, they expected the Japanese kids to do well, because they said, "Oh, you study too hard," you know, you studied more than other people, and there's no question that at that time, it was considered that if you didn't, weren't in the upper part of the, near the top of the class, that you were slacking. And people would, my mother, certainly one of my, Nishikaze's older, the younger, well, she'd be older than we were, but Judy was not as diligent with her studies as, as her other sisters. So they were always getting after her to pull up her socks, do better here. But that was a common, sort of the, they sort of expected you to do well in school.

TI: So when you said you were kind of average or normal, but you were still at the top of the class?

HS: Oh, yeah, we were average or normal in terms of Japanese guys.

TI: Which meant that you were at the top of the class? [Laughs]

HS: We were at that top, we were at the top, well, near the top of the class, no question. We were just, it's just by chance, I suppose. I don't know if by chance or if, we did do, we did have to do a, there's always a, our mothers always, both Harry and I had to have good marks, or like I say, we'd get it if didn't bring our report card. I mean, in those days, of course, it was always A, B, C and D. D you're failed, C, you're average, B, you're okay, and A, you're doing well. So, so if you didn't get all A's, everybody would, they say, "Oh, you didn't get this A." Mothers were always like that. If you didn't get A's, then you were failing.

TI: So as long as you were a straight-A student, then you were, that was the expectation, straight-A's.

HS: Yeah, expectation, they expected that you get A's. B's you could get, you could get away with a few B's, but C's was considered, well, you're a failure. But you weren't a failure, you're, not until you got to a D. But I know, I happen to have one of my old grade six, grade six report card, and I remember seeing that you have to have, it was mostly A's and B's, but when we got a B, Mama used to say, "Oh, that's not real good, you didn't get an A in that." And we didn't often get A's in English or something like that, because we had trouble. We didn't read books...

TI: But math and science...

HS: Math and science were much better than the average kid because that's where you could study. But there's no, that was your environment. We didn't, my mother didn't read English books, and my father didn't talk to us about any, although he did a lot of reading, but it was all in Japanese.

TI: How about things like art? Were you interested in art back then?

HS: I was interested in art then, yeah. I did a lot of drawing at that time, and when I was in grade six and grade seven, especially when I got into grade seven, I started doing a lot more drawing.

TI: So what inspired you to do that?

HS: Well, we had an art teacher in grade seven, and she taught, she... I forgot what kind of art we were doing, but in those days, it was, a lot of it was copy, you know. Copy, because that was what we were, that's how art was. And we did have an art class, and we had to make cutouts and stuff like that, grade seven. And I still remember that teacher because she was really a beautiful girl, beautiful woman, and we used to think, my, couldn't understand why she was an art teacher. But anyhow, she was the art teacher, and in grade seven, no, as far as physics, physical education, they used to call it physical education in those days, that's, that included everything. Like there was only one type of sport that you'd -- two types of sports, was basketball and soccer. There was hardly any baseball or softball, because the weather didn't allow us to do it that often. It was, often it would be raining. But soccer you could play anytime, whether it rained or when it was misty. And basketball, but you had to have a basketball court, which was pretty hard to come by. So it was mainly soccer, as kids we had to play, as far as sports were concerned.

TI: So I'm curious, if you were to ask, like, the Fraser Street gang or your other classmates or your teachers to kind of describe how you were, what Henry was like, what would they say? What were some of the words, or how would they describe you?

HS: I would say, think that we were, that I was a diligent student, and I've forgotten the terminology. I was a good, as they say, a good student. I can remember the comments that would be, that ended up as a good student.

TI: How about the Fraser Street gang? What would they say?

HS: The general? They would be generally a whole group. As a group --

TI: No, not as a group, what would they say about you? Some of your friends.

HS: Oh, I was, I was kind of one of the leaders. It was Harry and I, we would, we would decide what we would be doing. It was usually Harry and I, we would build forts and things like that, it was usually either Harry or myself that would, that would start the thing going about building this or building that, and we would do that. And then the rest of the guys would... I have a feeling that we might have been, well, Billy would always follow us, and he was always, but he was always, he was a follower, he would follow us, our lead, both of us. And there was only, then there was, like I say, the Chinese kid, I've forgotten how he, he was younger, about a year younger than we were, and he would, he would willingly work with us on that, whatever we decided. But the, and then there was the other two, and I don't remember who they were. And the other Japanese kid was the younger, he was about a year younger than we were.

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.