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MN: Now, I know in Sacramento you went to Japanese school, but when you got to Japan how much Japanese did you actually speak?

JD: Well, apparently it wasn't adequate, so they dropped me from fifth grade to second grade. [Laughs] And that's, that was the starting point. I guess, I don't remember taking any test to see I was qualified, but I could read some Japanese, but not, not comfortable. And so, but after a rigorous education at home, schooling, I was able to advance to third grade, and then a month later I went to fourth grade, and as I mentioned, my mathematics and social studies was advanced to fifth grade, so I was comfortable fitting there, and I couldn't quite get up to fifth grade because that'd be much more difficult, so that's where I stayed. And then of course you have the calligraphy that you have to study, and that was about the right level for me at the fourth grade level. There was singing class. You learned and I was able to fit into that group. And I remember when I first went to school my father would be introduced to the teacher who was in charge of me, and he, first thing he would say, "If my son does anything wrong beat him up." [Laughs] That's what he said, so, "Oh, is that right?" The teacher says, "Alright. Thank you." [Laughs] And that's how they, and that's how they'd greet each other. So we were respectful to the teacher. The teacher was very highly esteemed in Japan, very high ranked people, as a teacher, well looked up to.

MN: So let's see, in the United States you were supposed to be in the fifth grade, but in Japan they first put you in the second grade.

JD: Because my language was, yes.

MN: And then, now, you said you had rigorous home schooling. Who, who tutored you?

JD: Yeah, lot of learning more characters, more words to fit into the upper level. You're supposed to learn about two thousand characters, so, and probably I was down to maybe a couple hundred at the time, so I have to really increase my vocabulary to keep up with the class, reading and so forth, and to speak. And to listen to the lecture, be able to understand what the teacher was saying, so truly a quickly learning stage.

MN: Now, who was your tutor at home?

JD: My aunt. As I mentioned, my aunt was the youngest aunt, my father had seven brothers and sisters, so the youngest aunt, Aunt Shizuko, was about five years older than I was, and she was going to junior high school at the time, so she'd come home, she lived with us and she really was kind enough to help. And we had a neighbor who taught, who was a teacher, so I went to her home at night and she gave me extra study class. So that really helped. And she also had a younger brother, the teacher had a younger brother, about the same grade that I was, so that really helped, too.

MN: So with their help you were able to skip --

JD: Be able to accumulate, increase my vocabulary to be able to advance slowly and be able to stay with the class.

MN: Now, were there other Niseis in your class?

JD: No, there was none that I could remember. I was the only one foreigner, so to speak. I was the only one there. Yeah, it was interesting, I didn't see any. I knew there were some other friends from Sacramento, I later learned that he lived in, in the city, but I never ran into him.

MN: You had mentioned how your father went and talked to your teacher.

JD: Yes.

MN: How did your teacher treat you?

JD: It just, just "welcome to the class" and not very, it's, I was another student to him, doesn't matter.

MN: Now, how would you compare your schooling in Sacramento to your schooling that you started to get in Japan?

JD: Well, of course the cultural differences that when you go to school there's no janitor in school. You were the, student was the janitor, so we used to clean the school, once a week get a wet towel and go back and forth on the hardwood floor so the wood floor would be shiny and polished. All the windows would be washed by ourselves, all the sweeping, and then, of course, the bathroom, we had to clean the bathroom ourselves, and it was a really dirty job to clean the bathroom, but be able to clean the bathroom you kept it clean as well. You were aware you don't want to dirty the bathroom. And of course the waste was conserved to use as a fertilizer eventually, so it was important for the farmers to come and scoop it up, put it in the, in a certain area, so the farmer was grateful to accumulate the waste and take it with them. In the wintertime we walked barefoot on the floor, very cold. I got frostbitten, my ears, my hand and my foot, and I was very uncomfortable in that respect, but that's the way all the student was, so we just bore it. And my frostbit hand became infected in some place, and my grandmother used to get the pus out of from the infection, so I have leftover scars here that my grandmother cut and squeezed the pus out to heal my hand, probably some scars on my hand is from, leftover from the frost, frostbitten and the scar that created from it.

MN: Why didn't you wear gloves?

JD: Hmm?

MN: Why didn't you wear gloves?

JD: Because it was a training, discipline training, so to become a strong individual. And the girls were the same way. They didn't wear gloves or socks either, unless you had a medical condition that you needed to wear, but it was more embarrassing to be in that situation because, again, you'd be taunted as a weakling.

MN: So even in the wintertime, when it's snowing, you were not allowed to wear gloves or socks in the classroom?

JD: That's right, yes. Just had zori to walk on, around. And Hiroshima was not, not in the winter country, but it was, it had snow. It didn't stay on the ground that long, maybe a week or so, that's about it. It was very beautiful in the snow, but, and then of course the fall, the harvesting time, we helped the farmer harvest.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.