Densho Digital Archive - Larry "Shorty" Kazumura Interview (denshovh-klarry-01-0004)

<Begin Segment 4>

MA: So, let's talk about your regular, your English school. How many years did you go to school?

LK: School? That's why I said, I only go to ninth grade. I didn't finish high school.

MA: Why, why is that?

LK: Huh?

MA: Why, why didn't you finish?

LK: Why is that? That's what I'd like to know why, because all my sisters and brothers graduated high school. And that's why I came out with the "black sheep," see, because how come -- and not only that, now -- I'm born in America, isn't it? And I'm not a citizen. I'm not a citizen.

MA: Were you a Japanese citizen?

LK: I was a, what you call dual citizen. Why is that? Now, I don't know. Just me, now. All my other brothers and sisters are citizens. But why not me? It's amazing, isn't it? [Laughs]

MA: So, what did you do when you quit school?

LK: Quit school? I went to work at a service station. I used to work 'til eleven o'clock at night to help my family, raise my family. Because all the rest are going school and I'm not. And that is, all of them was going school, now, and not me. I don't know why, not me. So I came out with the "black sheep." [Laughs]

PM: Larry, I'm curious about that. Did your father ask you not to go to school at the ninth grade? Your father told you to go to work?

LK: My father?

PM: Yes, is that why you only went to the ninth grade?

LK: Well, my dad is working, but in those days, Chinese used to call that sampan. You ever heard of a sampan? This type of boat? Well, this is not a boat, it's a bus. Now, all my friends, Dad used to take 'em on the sampan bus. Free, now, we don't charge nobody. All the kids go to high school, grade school, Dad used to take 'em on the -- and you go twenty miles. My sister said, "How come he only charge five cents to go twenty miles?" I said, he could, she couldn't believe it. That's what Dad used to charge, five cents. And that's what they called the bus, "Five-cents bus." Amazing. Twenty miles for five cents. [Laughs] And me, I never took the bus. I used to run to school. Morning, going to school, and going, going to language school, always run. So think about it; it really helped me in my life. I wasn't worried about that.