<Begin Segment 3>

MN: Now you were the oldest of three children. Can you tell us your brother and sister's name starting with the oldest?

FH: Yes. My brother was Ted Hirata, Ted Naoyoshi, N-A-O-Y-O-S-H-I, Naoyoshi Hirata. He was one year younger than I was. My sister was Grace Nobuko, N-O-B-U-K-O, Hirata, who was seven years younger than me, I am. My sister is still surviving, my brother died on January the 6th this year.

MN: Now, from hotel managing, your father became a farmer. Do you know why he switched?

FH: That I do not know, but what I know is that they kind of cultivated that land. There were still some trees there, and so I recall that, with the horse and so on, they pulled out the roots of the tree and so forth, and made that into a farmland. I think that farm is still there, which is managed by a person, I think his name was Shimizu. And they had a relative there, who lives in Gardena area when we visited Spokane in 1974, still having that farm.

MN: Now you said when you moved out there, you started to go to Arlington Elementary School.

FH: Yes, uh-huh.

MN: And you skipped grades.

FH: Yes.

MN: How did that, how were you able to skip grades?

FH: Well, because being in the farm, they need the helping hand, and so they hired some JA high school students from Spokane, the town, and he was working there. And so my dad wanted us to learn English through him. He was our tutor on the farm.

MN: So your father hired a tutor for you and your brother and sister?

FH: Well, my sister was still very young, not born, but myself and my brother, yes, correct. And so I think with that help, I did pretty well in school. And so it was a two semester year, and I went to grade one only for a half a year, and then was in the second grade, and there for only about half a year, and I was already in the third grade. And so when I left for Japan at age nine, I should have been in the third grade, but I was already in the fourth grade.

MN: Now, at elementary school, did you experience discrimination?

FH: No, not at all, because I had very good friends. I still remember their first names, there was Chester and Bob and Jackie, they were my good friends, and I think they skipped with me, some of them once, some of them twice and so forth.

MN: Now, Chester, Bob and Jack, were they Japanese Americans?

FH: No, they were pure white. Because in the surroundings, throughout the whole school, there were only two yellow, myself and my brother, in different grades, and the rest were all white. Not even, I don't think there were even Indian Americans or, needless to speak of Spanish Americans.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.