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TI: Now, do you have any, like, childhood memories of Atatashima in terms of playing or activities, the type of things you did?

PY: Yes, I do.

TI: So what, describe some of those.

PY: [Laughs] Well, you know, I did, I did many things, and my mother... it's an island, so my mother bought a little boat for me. And on the boat, on the side, she put the Shodo-maru, named the boat. But this side, she put Shodo-maru, the other side, she put it the other way around, so Maru Dosho. [Laughs] So some of my, children used to call me "Maru Dosho" instead of "Shodo Maru," you know. Those things I remember. But I really enjoyed living on that small little island.

TI: And, like, tell me some of the games you played with your playmates. Do you recall games?

PY: Well, you know, there's no big flat land, only at the primary school there is a little flat land. But, well, baseball or things like that, we played. But fishing and swimming, that was the main thing that you, summertime, from morning to... summer vacations, from morning to evening, we used to swim and catch fish or this and that.

TI: Now, when you came from Hawaii and you're growing up there, were you, did people treat you differently because you lived in Hawaii for so many years, or did, you would just be treated like everyone else?

PY: Yeah, I don't remember too much about that. But I know that I couldn't speak Japanese, yeah. But because I stayed in Hiroshima one year, I think that helped me. And when I went back to Atatashima after the one year, I guess I was okay. You know, when you're seven or eight years old, you don't speak too much, all kind of same language, Japanese you speak. Not too fancy Japanese.

TI: That's interesting. So when you were in Hawaii growing up, what was the language spoken at home?

PY: English.

TI: It was English?

PY: Yeah.

TI: That's unusual, isn't it? I would have guessed that it would be Japanese.

PY: We speak little Japanese, too, but mostly English we used to speak.

TI: So your parents spoke English also?

PY: Yeah, I guess so. Well, it's not that good English. But when you go to kindergarten, you know, you have to communicate. That's how I got more used to the English than Japanese.

TI: Okay. So growing up in Hawaii you learned English, and now you're in Japan, you have to now learn Japanese.

PY: Right, right.

TI: Okay.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.