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MN: And then after three months, you returned to Los Angeles.

TI: Right.

MN: Now, when you came back to Los Angeles, you were still in grammar school, is that correct?

TI: Uh-huh, right.

MN: And then after grammar school, Ivanhoe, you went into...

TI: Thomas Starr King, yes, junior high school.

MN: Thomas Starr King junior high school, okay. What year did you enter junior high school?

TI: Oh, gosh. [Laughs] Six years after...

MN: I have here a question mark, '36 or '35?

TI: Must have been '36.

MN: '36?

TI: 1936.

MN: And then, can you describe some of the physical education clothes that the girls wore during that time?

TI: [Laughs] Yeah. Well, I was so happy that we didn't have to buy black bloomers, because the bloomers, I understand, were really tight around your thighs, and they weren't very good looking, you know. And so our class was the first ones to wear shorts, but we still had to have the middie blouse with the tail that you had to put between your legs and button up in front of you, so your shirts wouldn't come out of the shorts. So that's what we wore.

MN: Now, Thomas Starr King junior high school, what was the ethnic makeup there?

TI: Well, it was predominately Caucasian, yeah. We had a few Mexicans and Japanese. I don't remember any Chinese, isn't that something? There must have been.

MN: And your friends were predominately Caucasian or some Japanese...

TI: Mostly Japanese.

MN: Your school had this demerit system. Can you share with us what this is?

TI: Oh, yes. You were given a hundred demerits -- I mean, a hundred points -- [laughs] -- at the beginning, and then if you were tardy to school or you forgot your gym clothes or you didn't bring in your homework, then you would get one demerit taken off the hundred. And I was very fortunate, I guess, to remember my gym clothes every Monday. So I maintained a hundred percent. I never had a demerit the whole time I was in junior high school. So I had the good citizenship award pin when I graduated.

MN: Were there a lot of students who were able to be a good citizen?

TI: Most of the Japanese girls, yeah. Not the boys. [Laughs] But the girls, yeah.

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