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MN: I want to ask you a little bit more about yourself now. When you were growing up, did you attend Japanese language school?

MU: Yes, we did.

MN: How often did you go?

MU: It was held Sundays.

MN: Sundays. And where was the Japanese school located?

MU: Newcastle. There was a community building there it had a hall they would show Japanese movies upstairs and there were two or three rooms downstairs and that's where a teacher would come and we would spend the day there. We would take obento, and before the Japanese school began there was a Sunday school, a Christian Sunday school and I attended that too.

MN: This is one of the few Japanese language schools that I've heard was given on Sunday. Was there a reason for why it was on Sunday?

MU: Well, like in Penryn, a town nearby, country town, they went after their public school class and I think that is what happened in the city. And I think mainly because of the... they lived near that area whereas Newcastle, we're pretty spread apart and that would mean our parents would have to take us every day after the public school, leave us there and go get us and for some it would be quite a distance. But I don't know, to answer your question, I don't know the reason for it but I'm just thinking it's a little more convenient I think for everyone to go just on Sundays which might mean that we learned less than people who went every day after their public school classes.

MN: So, let me see, you said Sunday you had Sunday school and then you had a break and then you had the Japanese school?

MU: Not really a break, it's just right after. I don't exactly know the time but I think it was nine to ten, the Sunday school. I don't think it was half an hour, it could've been but I don't know the details. But I do remember taking obento.

MN: Do you remember what you took in your obento?

MU: Not really. Sandwiches, probably sandwiches in my obento box because I'm the youngest in the family and my oldest was my brother, nine years older, and I'm sure sandwiches came into play more than onigiri, onigiri from my oldest brother down to me. I know I took sandwiches to the elementary school, I do remember that.

MN: Now you were going to Sunday school. Did your mother have any problems of you attending a Christian Sunday school?

MU: No.

MN: But was your mother a Christian?

MU: Not at that time. Her father in Japan was a Buddhist minister.

MN: Now how did you feel about attending Japanese language school?

MU: I didn't have any special likes or dislikes. It was just one of the things that the family did and that's what we did and we had homework, my mother was a teacher in Japan so she would make us do our homework. And we would try to quickly do our homework because we could not read the Sunday papers, the comics, until we did our homework. I do remember that and I guess my brother would go into town to get the Sunday funnies, the Sunday paper that had the Sunday funnies. And we were not allowed to look at the funnies until we finished our homework. My mother was quite a disciplinarian and I think we behaved pretty well. I don't remember spankings.

MN: And you mentioned your mother had taught in Japan. Did she teach at the language school in Newcastle?

MU: I think she did because, not when I was going, but when it probably when it started maybe she was active when it started, because she learned to drive a car. And those days evidently from what my brother tells me there are several gears and so she would drive the Model T Ford, I guess, to Newcastle and she would park it so that she would not have to back up. She didn't know how or did not want to back up with several gears, you have to manipulate both feet changing the gears with the clutch and so I remember my brother saying that she would park the car so she would not have to back up. So that's when she would go to Newcastle to teach the Japanese school but when I was going she was not teaching.

MN: Did your mother, was she part of the group that started the Japanese school at Newcastle?

MU: I don't know for a fact if she did, I would think so. She was the organizer type of person and especially Japanese school if she had gone to Japanese college in Japan in Otsu to become a Japanese, a teacher in Japan. I would think she probably would have helped.

MN: It sounds to me then your mother was very educated as a female in Japan and probably came from a upper, middle upper class family in Japan. Does that sound about right?

MU: Her father was a minister and I do recall my mother mentioning that when she went to the college with friends that she met some of her classmates would talk about a certain kimono they were going to wear at a party or at an occasion. And so my mother being a girl was interested in that, and when she said something to her mother about so and so bought a new dress, whatever. My mother had said her mother said, "It would either be your education or another dress for you." And so I'm thinking that the father and mother, they were not really well off. They had sacrificed to send her to teachers college and she had mentioned that to us. That when she was living with us, she lived with us for twenty years and she said, "At this age I'm really appreciating what my parents did for me, the education." So my mother highly recommended education for all of us. She said, "You put it in your brain and no one can take it away from you," especially what happened to us and to the Japanese Americans who had property and belongings. We were very fortunate but as you know, they lost all their belongings but she said if you put it in your head they can't take it away from you so she was highly motivated in getting all of us, five of us, educated. But her parents did sacrifice for her to get her education. She wanted to go to college.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.