<Begin Segment 8>

MN: Now, when you went to school in Japan, can you describe how your day started? Did it start with chourei?

AM: Well, I'll tell you, they were very, trying to teach students to be very patriotic, so the first thing when this school, in the morning at the school, the whole school would gather in one place and then the principal of the school would tell you to face towards the, Tokyo, which would mean northeast from where Zentsuji was, and then we would always bow our head towards the Tennoheika, every morning before we all went to our own class. And that's how, they tried to teach us patriotism that way.

MN: Did you have to memorize the Kyoiku Chokugo?

AM: Oh yeah, very much.

MN: When did you recite that?

AM: We recited that in our class, when it came to that period where we talked about how to be patriotic to Japan and thing like that.

MN: Now, I know back then the schools didn't have janitors. Did you do soujitouban, like cleaning?

AM: Oh yes. Everybody had to take turn doing touban, and that was part of the education.

MN: What did the boys do? Did they wipe the hallway or did they sweep, or what did the boys do?

AM: Well, we would clean our desk and sweep the floors and things like that. See, our class was all boys. Boys and girls were separate, so all the boys were together. So we were made into groups and each group had certain assignments to do, whether to clean the hallway or the outside and things like that. They called it touban.

MN: Now at this point in your life, did you consider yourself a Japanese or an American?

AM: Well, I felt very much like a Japanese, although my hair was long, so... well, in some ways I felt like I was American because my hair was long, and then yet I wanted to be a patriotic Japanese. So there was a little conflict there.

MN: Now, if Japan had drafted you into the Japanese army would you have gone into the Japanese army?

AM: Yes, I guess I would've, yeah.

MN: Did you have dual citizenship?

AM: No. I didn't have Japanese citizenship all that time. I guess I was too young yet then, so I guess people, my parents never thought of my having a Japanese citizenship or anything like that.

MN: And that was never an issue, going to a Japanese school in Japan?

AM: No.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.