<Begin Segment 16>

MN: So when you started to attend school, how did that go? What grade did they place you in?

AT: I went to fifth grade, and so my sister was my coach, she was my instructor, so she would take me and introduce me to friends. So she tells me, "Okay, you say, 'Hi,' that's the way you're going to..." so, "Nice to meet you," or she would tell me what to say. So she said, "Not 'hai,' 'hi." So she was, she was my instructor, my teacher. And then at school, too, students would take time to teach me word by word.

MN: And you said they put you in fifth grade, but you were supposed to be in sixth grade?

AT: Sixth grade.

MN: Now, you have this unique experience of going to a private school, White Memorial Union School.

AT: Yes.

MN: Can you tell us a little bit about this?

AT: Yes. Well, my sister was already there, so it's a Seventh Day Adventist elementary school. And very small classes, class, and I guess my sister was also went to mission school in Hawaii. I know a lot of my friends who first came from Japan, they all went to that Hawaiian mission which is Seventh Day Adventist. And I think they have much more closer contact of teaching English. So anyway, yeah, we were, I went to White Memorial private school. And my mother was working, but there was some church member that had helped like giving scholarship for support, that supported us going through there. But it was small classes, the teachers and the students were very understanding and explained things. So I was able to understand and hear in about a year, and speaking and writing. Still need to learn. [Laughs] But communicating takes more time than listening.

MN: So you weren't teased.

AT: No... well, I was, accent, certain accent, I was teased. But that didn't shy me. I figured, okay, if I was teased, next time I can use the proper word or proper pronunciation.

MN: Now, were there a lot of Japanese, Okinawan Seventh Day Adventist members?

AT: Yes. Here, some, but yeah, they had a church in Okinawan, mission, Seventh Day Adventist church. See, their main thing is healthcare. They're very strong in healthcare, and, of course, diet and things like that. So in Okinawa, too, right now they have a big hospital there they geared to. So my grandmother in Okinawa became Seventh Day Adventist. So that's how. So we would be, we went to church, she would be going. Of course, my grandfather was more into philosophical ideas, so he never wanted to belong to any church. But this White Memorial elementary school probably was, helped me a lot.

MN: Did you go to church with your mother?

AT: Yes. Well, my sister, my mother worked at night, so it was my sister and I would go with the neighbor that would take us to church.

MN: Now, you transferred later to Hollenbeck junior high school, which is a public school. Why did you do that?

AT: Well, to go to junior high school in same school was, you had to travel to Lynnwood, and we had no way of going. Plus, I wanted to skip one year to be with my age group, and Hollenbeck, I was babysitting for this doctor's children, and I was telling her about this, so she said, "Oh, I'll help you." And so she called school and she told school, and school said, "Okay, if the grade and this and that meet, we'll do that." So she said, "Yeah, I talked to them, so go and see if you can sit in." So anyway, I was able to get into eighth or ninth. Ninth grade there.

MN: Just your age group.

AT: Right.

MN: And then from Hollenbeck you went to Roosevelt high.

AT: Roosevelt.

MN: Now Roosevelt, you had a best friend from, you made a best friend from Tokyo.

AT: Yeah, from Tokyo.

MN: Can you share with us how she reacted when she found out you were from Okinawa?

AT: Yeah, she was shocked. She said, yeah, we were talking, and she said she always talked about, she's from Tokyo, and she said she grew up in Karuizawa, which is a very exclusive resort area. So I said, "Oh, I'm from Okinawa." She said, "Okinawa?' she said, "I didn't know you spoke Japanese." I said, "We're Japanese." So she was very shocked. She said, "Oh, is that how Okinawans look?" So at that time, yeah, I guess lot of young people, Japanese thought Okinawan was some foreign country. In fact, they had to have a passport to go to Okinawa, and Okinawa to Japan, so maybe that's another reason. [Laughs]

MN: So her reaction you could say was very typical of a Japanese person?

AT: I guess so because I didn't... yeah. But it was surprising to me that she reacted that way. Because in elementary school, I did have friends from Japan, but they were from Osaka or some other prefecture. But yeah, she was from Tokyo, so she was, I don't know if they were more, not into inaka or something. [Laughs] But that was, I mean, shocking to me, but shocking to her.

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.