<Begin Segment 10>

MA: So then you were at Concord school until eighth grade, and then you went on to --

KB: No, sixth grade.

MA: Until sixth grade, okay.

KB: And then I went to Cleveland junior high. Cleveland at that time had junior high, two years of junior high, and then four years of high school.

MA: And that was in, more in Seattle.

KB: Right, uh-huh.

MA: And what was that transition like, going, I'm assuming Cleveland was probably a pretty large school at that time.

KB: Well, it was a small high school, small school. It was the smallest school in Seattle, and I think it was much smaller than, like, Roosevelt or Broadway or any of those other high schools. But it was exciting. I remember we were really, we thought we were making great progress, I guess, going from Concord school to Cleveland school, Cleveland, up on the hill. And it was, I think it was quite a change.

MA: And what were some of the biggest changes that you remember?

KB: Well, in the way that the classes were held. I mean, when we were at Concord, we were very close, we were in small classes, we were very close, and here, or now, in a much larger place. And the students were coming from all around the area, not just from our area. So meeting new faces, making new friends.

MA: Did the South Park kids kind of stick together as friends?

KB: I don't think so. I think we each developed new friends, although I used to still walk to school with my neighbor, we were friends with our neighbors, and so it was convenient for me to walk, walk to school with somebody. It was like, maybe a mile and a half, I don't, it was quite a long distance for us to go from our home to Cleveland, and we always had to walk, we didn't have buses in those days. So it's something that we accepted.

MA: I'm curious about the, again, the racial breakdown of your, of Cleveland in general, maybe your class. Was it, the percentage of Nisei students at Cleveland, what was, do you remember?

KB: Most of the Nisei students came from our area, so when we went to Cleveland, I think there were not as many Japanese as the white students. And I was thinking back, 'cause you had that question in your sheet, and you know, there were, I don't remember any Chinese, I don't remember -- well, I remember one black boy. He kind of was with us for a very short time, and then he disappeared. And otherwise, it was all white, Italians, and other white people and the Japanese. And the Japanese, as I said, became fewer percentage-wise because there were so many white students from the south, south end of Seattle.

MA: Did the Japanese American students sort of stick together and socialize, or was there more of a, in high school, more of an interracial....

KB: I think we were mixed more. I had, I developed some friends, especially in high school, that I kept all my life. One of the, one of my good college friends was from Cleveland. And I saw her until she passed away here a few years ago. So we developed a long-standing friendship in high school.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.