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TI: When you think back to Thomas and that area, how many Japanese were living around you? Do you have a sense of how many numbers...
MY: Gosh, I don't know. But it was about two-thirds Japanese. So...
TI: So we're talking about maybe hundreds of Japanese, do you think?
MY: Well, I don't know how...
TI: Like at the White River Buddhist Temple on Sunday, how many people would be there?
MY: Gosh, I don't know. I don't know. But, yeah, they figured that going to the, I worked with the museum quite a bit when they got started, and they estimated that the population was probably two-thirds Japanese.
TI: Okay. Well, so when you think about, you mentioned earlier Japanese language school. So when did you have to go to Japanese language school?
MY: We... oh, I think most of the kids started probably when they were in the second grade at the public school, and they'd go every year 'til they got through high school. If they were lucky enough, the parents would release 'em after grade school, but a lot of 'em went to Japanese school after they were in high school.
TI: And then, like, in a typical class, Japanese language school, how many people were, like, in your class when you went to Japanese language school?
MY: I don't know. I could get the grade school pictures out, and then I could tell. But, well, I don't know, there was quite a few. I think probably the whole class might be thirty-five kids, you know, and there would be maybe six or seven Caucasians. It was pretty well controlled by Caucasian -- I mean, Japanese students.
TI: Okay. That gives me a sense.
MY: So that, I don't know. I could, it would be a lot easier for me to say, "Here, read this," because Stan has been so good about getting out Japanese American articles from the paper for me. And I made copies and I've got 'em in notebooks, some of 'em, most of 'em.
TI: So you've been doing research, and Stan Flewelling has been getting some of these things.
MY: Yeah.
<End Segment 12> - Copyright (c) 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.