<Begin Segment 8>

TI: Now, you come back from Japan, you're around six years old, and you have to go to school. I'm assuming that your English isn't very good or even nonexistent because you've been in Japan all this time. So tell me about school and how that was for you.

TU: You know, I remember this teacher, Mrs. Moulton, M-O-U-L-T-O-N, she was a grandmotherly type of woman, I recall. And she was very kind, and she got me reading this primary book about dogs. "My name is Terry, I'm a dog, I say bow-wow," words to that effect. And she got me going and I started picking up the language, yeah. So I guess I must have done okay, 'cause at that age, you pick up language pretty rapidly.

TI: And do you know what grade you started at?

TU: First grade.

TI: First grade.

TU: Yeah, and then second grade was a Mrs. Brace, another grandmotherly type, very kind. That was at the Loomis Union grammar school.

TI: Now, when you started first grade, were there very many other Japanese in your class?

TU: Quite a few. Loomis had a lot of Japanese farmers and the kids went to school there. So I don't know what the percentage was, but there were quite a few.

TI: Now were there very many others who came in not speaking English or not knowing much English?

TU: I don't remember except about my brother and me starting out not knowing one word of English and trying to make a go of it. [Laughs]

TI: Well, in some ways, even though you were much younger, it may have been easier for you starting school because you're in the first grade. Your brother was more like in... was he in high school yet?

TU: No, he was in grammar school, yeah.

TI: But he was like in upper grammar school.

TU: Yeah, I forget what grade. I think he came in the same class as my sister Nobu. She was in the seventh or eighth grade, I don't know. I don't remember just exactly.

TI: But how was it for him? Because again, his English probably wasn't very strong, and he's thrown in with older kids...

TU: I don't know what kind of difficulties he had, but his math was good. He went to school in Japan, he did pretty well as I understand it. So that part, aside from the language, he did okay.

TI: And plus, he had the sister, your sister to help also, probably.

TU: I don't know how much they helped each other. [Laughs]

TI: Well, tell me about that. Were the siblings pretty close, Gene and Nobu and Rusty and you? Did you do a lot together, the four of you?

TU: I remember fighting with my brother Rusty. [Laughs] But otherwise we kept pretty much to our own circle of friends.

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