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TI: Well, you mentioned on the main floor was the Japanese language school. Tell me a little bit about that in terms of, like, how many students would attend that language school?

KY: Oh. This is a guess, but we had, I think, eight classes in all, but then the eighth graders could actually attend some extended class. So I think up to about ten years' worth of language school training. And the number, that's a very interesting question. There weren't too many going to that school, but they were all, most of 'em were farmer's kids, 'cause most of us were farmers. But we'd go to that school six days a week. Number, number, number. I would guess maybe ten, fifteen per class.

TI: So that's quite a few. So you're talking about seventy, eighty kids?

KY: Yeah.

TI: And how many different instructors were there?

KY: There was only the main one there, so he must have, he must have gone from one section to another section, moved right along, I guess.

TI: Do you remember his name?

KY: Yeah. The first one was named Tomioka. I don't know his first name and I don't know just where he came from. But he was an old gentleman that, very kind, gentle, strict. But the next one was named Hirata. Hirata, I don't know the first name. But he had a family, two kids and a mother, and the kids were roughly our age. I don't know where he was from. But he was the one that really affected me in the language training in the sense that he was the one that said, "Yamashita, you're a pretty smart kid, but if you just do what the other kids are doing, you'll just be so-so. So if you're supposed to learn ten kanji every day, new kanji every day, you learn eleven. Learn one more kanji and then you'd be all right." Somehow I remember that from him.

TI: And when he said that, did you learn the extra kanji?

KY: I really can't say, but I imagine I did. Because I was a studious kind. I liked to read a lot. In fact, when I graduated high school, in my school album, it said either a "true student" or "truly a student." [Laughs] That was my description, you know, under that picture they'd have this, couple of words description of the guy. So they considered me a student. One other reason I think was that I was a skinny one. I was a small guy. Well, I am still small, you see, and even when I graduated high school I was, I believe it was around 115 pounds or something like that. So for a farmer's kid, that's not very much. So I think that's what happened.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright (c) 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.