<Begin Segment 5>

TI: So say you're in second grade, and why don't you start from the moment you wake up, why don't you just kind of walk through a day for me and what happens?

HN: I remember my feeling about school, I felt, I didn't really look forward to school. But I remember one time, the principal, Miss Mahon -- that's a memory that I remember to this day -- she took me... I was playing with money in the class. See, I wasn't a very good student. I was playing with a coin or something. The teacher took me to the principal, principal took me to my father's store, just about a block away. And the principal took me. Because little kids aren't supposed to, I don't think, are supposed to be having money with them. Anyway, I remember that incident.

TI: And what happened when Miss Mahon took you to the store?

HN: I heard her talk to my father. My father was very fluent in English. I heard Miss Mahon, the principal -- I was frightened, I was terrified. I was little. "Well, we're going to maybe have to send him to Mercer Island." There was a boy's school in Mercer Island. Did you know that?

TI: No, I didn't.

HN: Down in the... there's still, the building, the structure, I've heard of this boy's school, reform school. She said, "Mercer Island," right away I thought, "Oh, my goodness. My goodness, I'm in trouble." Well, anyway, that was all. I think that she said that to terrify me. I think that was important.

TI: And it sounds like it worked, too, that you were frightened.

HN: Yeah, I think I took the money from the store, the till, you know. But being a kid, you do that, I didn't realize that. And so I wasn't studying, I was playing with a coin at the school. But I'm glad the teacher... but one thing I remember which I'll never forget, third grade or whatever. What a suffering. I had to change, I had to change my writing from left hand to right hand. That's my memory of my grade school. I had to, it took me a year. So I didn't really enjoy my grade school. I had a bad experience.

TI: So, Hiro, explain this to me. So you had to change from left hand to right hand. Explain to me why you had to change.

HN: I think, I thought about it, and I think that was due to the penmanship. Nowadays, you don't have that in school, penmanship, but I think the, in order to get the proper curvature, you had to write. Because I don't think the left, you could get the right curvature of your penmanship. They don't do that anymore.

TI: So was this true for all the students who were left-handed?

HN: I suppose, oh, yeah. That's true, because there was one guy, Kiyoshi Kawaguchi, that had the fish store on Jackson Street. He was left-handed, but he could not change. He did not change. I guess he, I guess he didn't have willpower. He didn't change. That was one guy I remember. He was left-handed, too.

TI: And when you say he didn't have willpower, because it took a lot of willpower to change?

HN: [Laughs] Yes. Every night after school I had to practice at home. I think it took me a whole year. I was left, I was left-footed, everything, shoot marbles. That was very, very torturous. Very difficult. So that was bad for my... well, I don't want to blame my grade school for my poor attitude about studies. Well, anyway, I was not a good student.

TI: Earlier you mentioned the principal, Miss Mahon. What was she like?

HN: Very strict. Well, at least I thought, I think she was strict. And all the parents, all the parents liked her, being the disciplinarian. How to blow your nose. I remember the assembly, she said, "Okay," we were all lined up, "take out your handkerchiefs, unfold it this way, then plug your one nostril and then don't blow... plug one side and then blow your nose." She was even, I never thought about that 'til now. She was a disciplinarian. That's why the Issei parents liked her. They're disciplinarians, too, you know that. Issei were disciplinarian.

TI: Well, so it's interesting, so you would have, I guess, values, or you would learn things from your parents to do a certain way, and then Miss Mahon would show you some other things. So how were they different?

HN: They were very, not different, they were very much alike. [Laughs] Different? I think, gee, disciplinarian at home, disciplinarian at school, I think that's why I got a dislike to school. All my bad experience about changing my writing style and everything, I think it was just bad.

TI: So let's go back, like before school, did you have breakfast before school?

HN: Oh, I'm sure. I'm sure I did. I don't remember being hungry, but I imagine, yeah.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.