<Begin Segment 9>

MN: Now, you started elementary school after the war. How did you feel about growing up without a father?

AT: Oh, very normal. Because my whole classmate, nobody had fathers, and everybody was being raised by their grandparents or their mother only. And each family had more than one kid, and so really very, very normal. Some, even, oh, when we were in second or third grade, maybe they would lose their mother, the five kids just living on their own. So as far as not having father, nobody felt any strange. We thought it was strange somebody had father. So that was very novel to us.

MN: So a lot of these fathers died during the war.

AT: During the war, yes.

MN: And you had a teacher that never wore a sleeveless shirt?

AT: Yes. That was my fifth grade teacher, and I know she was, she was, we were her first class after she became a teacher, and she never wore short sleeves. She always wore long sleeve, and we never figured that out. And my, I remember my grandmother talking about, she got burned. And then I can, we were able to see some red marks over here. And, of course, we never questioned. We didn't think anything was... because in class, we would have some students with, I guess, now, you can say a really bad case of eczema, almost too infected, all boils, sores, all of the body. There were kids like that. And we had our lice checked, and we were being sprayed with DDT on our hair, so those things were all normal to us.

MN: Now, with the U.S. occupying Okinawa, which language was used to teach, teach the children?

AT: Oh, it was all Japanese. Japanese. But I think we were introduced to English alphabet from much, much... we did it from the first or second grade. Whereas in Japan, I understand it was third or junior high or something like that, but we were, but as far as education, my understanding is that it was always under Japanese government. So it was the Japanese, and then they enforced us to try to learn "proper" Japanese, without Okinawan accent. So that's when Okinawan, using Uchinaguchi was very much prohibited in school.

MN: Did students get in big trouble if they were found speaking Uchinaguchi?

AT: Yeah. They called, they have these plaque, it's a wooden plaque that somebody had written, and then they would pass that and then you'd have to carry that, you have to be holding that all day long, until you catch somebody using some phrase, and then you could pass on. But it wasn't, educationally you were reprimanded or anything like that. It was just to try to, not to speak Uchinaguchi in school.

MN: So this plaque was kind of, you're embarrassed if you have it.

AT: Right, right.

MN: Now, after the war, did your mother remember enough English to work with the U.S. military?

AT: No, no. She never worked with the military.

MN: What did she do after the war?

AT: She was teaching school, elementary school, so he became a teacher. And because at that time, many teachers were killed with their students, too. So those who had -- of course, there were some who had, went to teaching school, so they had their teaching credential to teach, but not enough teachers. So they had to recruit many who had, was educated without actual teaching credentials. So my mother was one of those that were teaching elementary school.

MN: And right after the war, what was your Oshiro grandfather doing?

AT: Well, he had lost, I mean, school was gone. He didn't have any teaching position or anything, so he was trying to farm, but he wasn't good at it. So he was, as much as my grandmother would force him to go and work in the field, but he did, he read a lot. So whatever he was -- 'cause his entire collection of the books were all gone, too, so he went through a slightly depression period. But, so he got into studying the religion, different religion, these people he would call and try to hear their lecture or things like that. And at times he thought, oh, maybe he'll try to get into politics, but no, he didn't do that. But eventually he was able to start teaching again.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.