<Begin Segment 8>

BK: Well, you were about what, twelve years old or so, and would you describe when you came to Seattle?

MH: We came to Seattle in 1938. My brothers were all out of school, of course, and working. And I'm sure my father and mother didn't, wanted them to get married someday, so we all, they came to Seattle, and for a year my mother took care of a hotel that her friend owned on Fifth and Main, the Great Northern. And while the people were in Japan, she kind of watched the hotel for them, and then made us an apartment in one of the offices. I think... oh, what's that American... there was an American newspaper, I mean, Japanese newspaper in American, Courier was it?

BK: Yeah, the Courier.

MH: Yeah, they were on one side of this building, halfway up the stairs, and on the other side, they fixed an apartment for us. So, they had three rooms.

BK: And this was the Great Northern Hotel?

MH: Great Northern Hotel. It's gone now. So I lived there for a year while I went to Bailey Gatzert. And then, I didn't, I don't remember going with a lot of the kids, because at that time I just tagged along with my brother, especially Ted, the one that's next to me. In fact, it got so bad, he says, "You gotta quit going, they all think you're my girlfriend." [Laughs]

BK: This is probably the first time you had seen so many Japanese Americans.

MH: That's it.

BK: What was your impression?

MH: I don't know, I kind of felt left out a lot. My brother would take me to Alki, and we'd go swimming. He met a friend, my sister's brother would, came in and started taking him, so of course, I just got to go with him. And we used to go swimming at Alki, and Madison and Mount Baker, and I didn't know anybody really. I'd walk to school once in a while with some of the girls, but when you don't grow up in a community, it's very, very hard to become part of it. So I kind of, sometimes, would walk alone and go to school, or go to Tip School, my mother made me go.

BK: What is Tip School?

MH: Japanese school. [Laughs]

BK: Tell us more about that.

MH: And being twelve, and in the first grade, it's really -- I kind of just sat in the back and watched. I never did learn very much.

BK: Because are you saying that the other students, then must have started this Japanese language school much earlier than you?

MH: Right.

BK: Oh, I see.

MH: So, they were all little kids, and here I was at twelve... but I faithfully went, for over three years, I think.

BK: So when was this?

MH: 1938, '39, '40, '41.

BK: And so, you went to school, Bailey Gatzert, during the day.

MH: And then went up to the Tip School, with... everybody went.

BK: So this was right after school.

MH: Right.

BK: But you just walked from Bailey Gatzert over to Japanese school.

MH: That's what I always laugh about, is now... the kids wouldn't walk, but we'd walk from Fifth Avenue to Bailey Gatzert, and then, from Bailey Gatzert to Fourteenth to go to Japanese school. Then we'd come down Jackson Street, all the way down, to Fifth again. Nowadays, you can't get the kids to walk anywhere. [Laughs] Rain or shine.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.