<Begin Segment 5>

TI: Well, when you think about your, let's go to regular school. So what was, let's talk about, yeah, what was your regular school like?

BS: Well, my, from the first through the fifth grade in El Monte we had a segregated school just for Japanese and Mexicans. I would say, I have a class photo where there was around half a dozen of us in a total class of, say, around forty students, so there might, there might have been, like, thirty-six Mexicans to, well, not thirty-six --

TI: Thirty-four to six, kind of.

BS: Yeah, right.

TI: So it was a segregated school, it sounded like... so a large proportion, almost eighty percent was, was Mexican, and then maybe twenty percent were Japanese.

BS: Right.

TI: Roughly, just roughly. So segregated school, that, that's a little unusual. So tell me about that, was that common in the San Gabriel Valley for schools to be segregated?

BS: No. There may have been couple of other segregated school and as I recall there were no protests. People just accepted those kind of schools, and it could've been good for, especially, I guess, the Mexicans. I have a photo that shows them barefooted and some of them were not even bringing lunches to school, so perhaps for them it was a good way to get used to the American way of life.

TI: So do you recall, for the segregated school, were there, like, special or different things that were done, an example being maybe the use of Spanish in the school more than a regular school would have? Or you mentioned some kids who didn't have food, were, were lunches provided? Do you recall anything like that?

BS: No, I don't recall any lunches provided. Nothing special. I don't think... the language was all English. There was nothing special, special program just for Mexicans or anything like that, but I think it was just a normal American curriculum.

TI: And so when earlier you said that it might have been a good transition for, for the Mexicans and maybe the Japanese to be in this school, so I'm not quite sure... why would that be a good transition to, to kind of a normal, a regular school?

BS: Well, I think it gets them used to the English language, English custom, to prepare them for higher grades, see. And I don't know if actually they did go to higher grades. My brothers have grammar school photos above the, above the fifth grade, and there's hardly any Mexicans in those photos, so they must've dropped out after the fifth grade.

TI: At the school they had Japanese also, and when I interview other Niseis about school, oftentimes, even at grammar school, the, the Japanese, the Nisei students were some of the better students. They excelled. So why would it be good for the Japanese to be at this school, because I mean, in terms of transition, would the Japanese need kind of that transition, too or what, what do you think about that?

BS: No, I don't think the Japanese needed that transition, although probably when they were, before grammar school they probably spoke a lot of Japanese and not much English, but still, the Japanese as a whole did very well in school, so you have to give credit to the prewar Japanese people on how much they excelled.

TI: Okay, good. So, so tell me a little bit about the other school. So I'm guessing the other school was white, and do you have any, what can you tell me about that? Was that close by? How large was it? What do you know about that school?

BS: Well, I went from the fifth grade through the seventh grade I went to a normal school when my family moved to Puente, and that school had about twenty percent Japanese and a few Hispanics and the rest were whites. I would say it was just a normal situation. I think all the Niseis were just as American as the whites and I think so were the Hispanics. It was just a normal situation. I don't think, at my school there were hardly any discrimination. We all got along very well.

TI: Now, you mentioned, so you went from El Monte to Puente, now the kids, the Japanese that were at Puente, did they attend a segregated school or were they always with the same classmates all the way through?

BS: Yeah. Right, they were the same classmates. There were no segregated schools to, in the area that I went.

TI: Okay, so that's, so for you, you had a different schooling from first to fifth. How well prepared, or how, what, did you feel like you were at a either advantage or disadvantage with what you went through versus what, say, the other Japanese who had been -- it's almost like an experiment, almost, in terms of you have one case where you went to one situation and these Japanese went to another and then you came together in these, what, sixth grade. I'm just curious if you felt like there was a difference in schooling between what you got and the other Japanese at Puente.

BS: Well, I think at that point, I don't think it made that much difference, but I think I sort of blame my lack of vocabulary to my going to that segregated school with all the Hispanics. My vocabulary is very poor.

TI: And that's in comparison to other Niseis, you would say? I mean, what, just in general?

BS: Right. In general people my age, I would say my vocabulary, compared to others, is on the poor side.

TI: Okay, interesting. And how, and how would say in terms of, so by being in a segregated school from one, first to fifth grade, you didn't have as much exposure or interactions with, with white students. How did that, do you think, change you or made you different than maybe other Niseis? Do you think there was a difference by not having that connection in the first through fifth grade?

BS: Maybe so. I do not mix with whites that much. Most of my friends are Japanese, although I do have a few white friends, but most of my friends are Japanese. I think this probably is the result of getting out of camp in 1945 and the feelings that, that came to me from leaving the camp.

TI: Okay, so I'm gonna ask you about that later. I'm gonna try to stay chronological.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.