Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Louise Kashino Interview
Narrator: Louise Kashino
Interviewer: Alice Ito
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: March 15, 1998
Densho ID: denshovh-klouise-01-0003

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AI: So what would a typical day like, be like, when you were say in the third grade or so?

LK: Well, let's see. I, I guess it took me a while to adjust to the school because it was quite different from Pacific.

AI: What was different about it?

LK: Well, I think I was one of the few Japanese Americans and...

AI: So that was a big change.

LK: And it was a bigger school.

AI: And so then did you feel self-conscious about being one of the few Japanese Americans?

LK: Well, I knew I was different. [Laughs] And my, we sort of had a complex. My mother didn't speak fluent English at that time so whenever they had PTA meetings she'd never come, and that was one wish, that I, that my mother could come to PTA meetings so I could be like other kids, but... my dad was more fluent in English, but he was always busy with the grocery store.

AI: And then did you experience any prejudice at that time in elementary school? You realized that, that you were different, but did you ever have to face anything difficult?

LK: Oh, sometimes we'd fight with our neighbors. [Laughs] They'd call us Japs, you know, and little kids do that, those things.

AI: Right.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.