<Begin Segment 7>

TI: So going back to Walnut Grove, when I was there one of the things that stood out to me was how segregated the town was. So you had a Chinese area, a Japanese area, and then a white area. Can you talk about that? I mean, how much mixing was there between the races?

MB: Hardly any except there was this woman who came into town to teach dancing lessons, and again, the classes were separate. And then she had a recital and had a party, and we played games, hide and go seek, and it was just wonderful, being together with the white kids, and it was, with kids there's no prejudice as such unless your parents have taught you this. And it, I thought what a wonderful time we had.

TI: Oh, so that's interesting, so this dancing teacher would come to Walnut Grove. She would, she would, like, have a class for whites and then a class for Japanese and then another class for Chinese?

MB: Chinese, for some reason -- well, most of them lived in Locke by then, so they weren't attending. (There was no Chinese class.) I mean, Locke is just, I don't know, half a mile, that's very close, and this was in the Brown Hotel. And he, I guess, didn't, wanted it separate so he could get separate rent. I don't know.

TI: But anyway, so she had a class for whites and a class for Japanese, but then you said the party, she brought everyone together so both --

MB: Right. I mean, she didn't seem too, I don't know if it was a financial gain for her, but she at least got us together and we just had all, such a good time is what I remember.

TI: Now, up to that point, how much contact did you have with, with other white girls?

MB: Didn't have any. We just, separate, went to separate schools and we didn't know, have any contact whatsoever.

TI: And so when you had that contact what did you think? This is now your first time being around white girls your age, what did you think?

MB: Well, just that it was wonderful, and it was over in a day.

TI: And do you recall talking to any of the white girls?

MB: Yes. They were just like any, us, any, the Japanese. I mean, kids are kids. They just don't think about other nationality, being different or, I guess it's all taught at home. I don't know what is said, but I guess they didn't want, the parents didn't want the kids to eventually get married. Why, and when we grew up the whites might be marrying the Asians or something like that. [Laughs]

TI: Interesting. So you didn't meet any whites because, you mentioned earlier, they went to one school and you went to another. So let's talk about your school a little bit. In Walnut Grove the schools were segregated, so the school you went to was all, mostly Japanese, is that --

MB: No. There were a few Chinese and a few Filipinos. We never had any blacks, as I remember. But I didn't have to go to the old school. The new school opened just as I started school, so I was fortunate. But prejudice occurs everywhere, so when Japanese and Chinese were in the school and they often had fights.

TI: And what did they fight about, when you say they often had fights?

MB: Yeah, I really didn't recall, but I remember the school was surrounded by these beets, sugar beets, and they were throwing at, beets at each other. And, like my brother's class, and the principal had really marked him down and he couldn't go to Cal. He had to go to Sacramento JC before he went to dental school. I don't know whether he was the instigator or what, but he was not college material (the principal) indicated. Sacramento (J.C.) was a Junior College then. (He was not allowed to go to (UC Berkeley). Course, they all had to leave school midway to go to camp.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.