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TI: So let's, I want to ask now about Japanese school. So after regular school you said you went down the hill to Japanese school?

HL: Uh-huh. That was down on Rainier, you know.

TI: Rainier and Weller, that one?

HL: Yeah.

TI: Okay. It's still there, same Japanese language school.

HL: Yeah, it's still there.

TI: And so tell me about that. What, like how, did you have, like, a little break between the schools or did you go directly?

HL: Let's see, it was, we went directly. There was, you probably had about a thirty minute to forty-five minute break because I, maybe an hour, because the Japanese school ran from about four to five-thirty. In the winter I think it was five 'cause it would get dark early. And every, we all went, and so --

TI: So first tell me, how large was your class, when you think about your classroom in the Japanese school?

HL: In Japanese school? Oh, I would say there was like, I remember in my class there were like forty kids.

TI: And these were all the same age, same, like grade level?

HL: Yep, you had first grade, second grade, third grade, fourth grade, all the way up to eighth grade.

TI: And were these pretty much all Bailey Gatzert kids, or did they come from other schools, too?

HL: Yeah, I think some came from Pacific and some came from Washington, but the majority was from Bailey Gatzert.

TI: And, and tell me how rigorous Japanese language school was. I get a different, I think, a different story from my father in terms of what Japanese language school, I'm curious what you thought of Japanese language school.

HL: Well, I don't know, I just kind of accepted it as what it was, but it was primarily reading and writing Japanese. And depending on the teacher, some teachers were strict, some teachers we ran all over them. I mean, it's just like any other, but we had some very good teachers at the Japanese language school.

TI: Okay, any, any interesting stories or memories of Japanese language school?

HL: Not really. It was...

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.