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MN: Now, in 1925, your mother played a pivotal role in keeping two Japanese schools open, the Daini Gakuen in Uptown, and then the Brawley school in Imperial Valley.

TI: Right.

MN: Can you share with us what your mother did?

TI: Okay. There was a ploy to close down the Japanese schools at that time in 1925, and so they said that if one of the teachers had passed the civics test, that they could keep the school open. So the Japanese people who ran those two schools asked my mother to take the civics test. And so she went to Mrs. Douglas who was her mentor that brought her over from Japan, and asked her to get some books to study civics, U.S. civics. And so she studied them and she went to take the test and passed. And so her name was put on the roster of Daini Gakuen and the Japanese school in Imperial Valley.

[Interruption]

MN: And is it, your mother was one of the few women who were bilingual? Is that why she was asked to do this?

TI: Yes.

MN: Now, when your mother was helping the Brawley Japanese language school, were you living separately? Were you in Los Angeles and she in Imperial Valley?

TI: No. My mother and father, we all went down and rented a house and stayed there for quite a while. But we still rented our house in Los Angeles.

MN: So what did your father do while you were in Imperial Valley?

TI: Well, he had, a lot of his clients were in the Imperial Valley. And so it was a good time for him to sell more insurance. [Laughs]

MN: Now, while you were living in Imperial Valley, did you attend the Japanese school?

TI: No, I was just one year old. I was the baby. People down in Imperial Valley have told me that, "I babysat you while your mother taught." [Laughs] I have several friends that have told me that.

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