<Begin Segment 4>

TI: So tell me about going to school. How close was school?

JM: We had to catch a bus. It was five miles from where we lived and every morning we'd catch a bus and then come home around four, five o'clock every day.

TI: And let's talk about school first, so tell me about your school. I mean, how many other Japanese were at this school?

JM: Oh, we had quite a few Japanese. Let's see, we had Wakamatsu, Okamura... oh, maybe eight different Japanese, I mean, families, were going there.

TI: And so how big a class, like --

JM: The class was very small. Like if I was in the sixth grade, well, there'd be maybe six or seven, and then the seventh graders too, there'd be maybe four or five, and so the teacher, we'll have maybe one teacher teaching the classes like that.

TI: And how many non Japanese were in the class?

JM: There were at least two thirds of, in the class.

TI: So two thirds were Japanese and one third was non Japanese?

JM: Yeah.

TI: And how did the different races get along with each other, Japanese and non-Japanese?

JM: We got along pretty good, 'cause I was in a lot of sports, too, at school, playing football and baseball. But there was one family, hakujin girl, she was always teasing us, and even during classes she would say, "Jap, Jap," and the teacher says, "So-and-so, you're not supposed to say that. They're Japanese." "No, no, they're a 'Jap' yet." And that's the way it was going.

TI: So I'm curious, when this one girl who did that, on the playground did anyone just tell her, "Hey, don't do that," or...

JM: Just, I don't know, but still, at the playground we would all get together. She didn't call me 'Jap' during that time. It's just some kind of a conversation, something like that, then she'll say, "Jap, Jap, Jap." And the principal overheard that, too, and he came up and says, "No, you're not supposed to say 'Jap.' They're all Japanese."

[Interruption]

Okay, so let me ask that question again. This girl would use the term Jap and, and tell me again, so how did that make you feel when she used that term, Jap?

JM: To me inside, it was just mumbling in here, but I couldn't say nothing either because only a few Japanese and thing like that, but she was one of the girls that was kind of naughty, teased everybody and thing like that too, so...

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.