<Begin Segment 6>

TI: Going back to the Japanese community, were there ever any Japanese community events like picnics or anything like that that went on in Gardena?

FK: I guess with the Nihongakko there were some picnics. But my mother didn't drive a car, so we didn't get around. My father was usually busy working, so he didn't take us anyplace. If we got lucky, one of the family friends would let us hitch a ride. So that was our way of joining the others.

TI: So you mentioned Nihongakko. Did you go to Japanese school?

FK: Yeah, that was every day after school.

TI: And so describe that. I mean, so you would, like, what would a typical day, describe sort of the morning, through regular school, 'til Japanese school. How would it work?

FK: Well, grammar school was from morning to noon and then I'd walk home for lunch, because we were only a block and a half from home. And at that time, Pauline and I would compare notes on that soap opera, and then we'd go back after lunch, and then three o'clock, we were dismissed, and then I'd walk home to get my, what we called kaban, knapsack, to go to Nihongakko. And that was like, oh, about a mile and a half, two miles out in the field, way out. And we'd have to walk. Sometimes we got a ride with the sensei, but usually we walked. We'd go to school and go through the lessons and then come home, walk home.

TI: And about how many students were there?

FK: I never counted, I don't know.

MN: One question is, did you go to the Moneta Gakuen, and did they make you sing the Kimigayo?

FK: No. We went to the... Moneta was "classier."

MN: Do you remember what your Nihongo gakkou was called?

FK: Uh-uh. I don't recall at all.

MN: You didn't have to do the singing of the Kimigayo before you started class?

FK: No. I guess I never learned the words, for one. [Laughs] I don't know. I don't recall that at all. I guess I was unpatriotic, I don't know. Except 1940, '41, they were passing, I don't know what they were passing. We were supposed to help make these -- don't ask me what it means -- imonbukuro, we had to come up with a sack, knapsack, to send to the brave soldiers of Japan. And we would write, I don't know what the blazes it was. I never could finish the whole project. But I remember, "Oh, I didn't know there were soldiers from Japan over in whatever country." But we had to come up with this project. And to this day, I don't know what happened to the one I was working on.

TI: And this came through the Japanese language school? That was a project that they coordinated?

FK: Uh-huh. I might have been taken away for that, I don't know. [Laughs]

TI: That's interesting. Did you ever get up to Los Angeles, like Little Tokyo?

FK: Oh, yeah. Prewar, I started with orthodontics, Dr. Nagamoto, and I had to catch the, there used to be a Torrance bus on Figueroa that would go all the way into L.A., and then I would transfer to P-car and go downtown L.A. But once a month or whatever, I would have to stand there out in Figueroa and Gardena Boulevard and catch the bus, go into L.A. To this day, I wonder, why didn't my mother worry about me? [Laughs] I was a pre-teen, and I'd go off, and there was no fear.

TI: And what were your impressions when you'd go up there by yourself?

FK: Oh, I felt grown up. All of eleven or twelve years old, told us to catch -- and, oh, you had these couple of coins for the token, for the streetcar.

TI: Now, when you went up there, did you ever walk around the streets or anything?

FK: No.

TI: You'd just go directly to the doctor and then back?

FK: Right, right. No, and then after the orthodontist, I'd walk two blocks to my dad's office, he was on north San Pedro, right off of Jackson Street. And the place used to be called Higoya Hotel, Mr. Matsumoto ran it and my father rented space for his office there, on the second floor.

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