<Begin Segment 3>

TI: Okay, so let's talk about your school then. When you went to school was it mostly then white and then maybe Hispanic and a few Japanese?

KY: There were, in the community there weren't that many Japanese. I was the only Japanese in my class. When I saw other Japanese people was that my parents thought it would be good for us to go to Japanese school. So on the weekends, Saturday and Sunday, we used to go to... there was a woman who came and we went to the Japanese class. And that's when in Richmond there were a number of people who owned flower nurseries and they lived very close by and so that's when I saw more Japanese.

TI: Given that you were the only Japanese in your class, how were Japanese viewed or treated in Richmond before the war?

KY: Well, as far as I'm aware, I think on the whole we weren't that many so we just... I think we got assimilated but there weren't any problems. I've never been called any names or I've never had any, there weren't any incidents of racial discrimination.

TI: So I'm getting a sense about Richmond. So you had the Santa Fe railroad so they're some Japanese who work there. You mentioned the nursery business, was there a large enough community that there was like a Japanese store and things like that?

KY: No, it's interesting, there was a vendor who used to come selling Japanese food, so that's how, one of the ways that you're able to get Japanese food. During the summer particularly because we need dental care, we went to Oakland and then in Oakland there were Japanese stores but in the immediate community there were not.

TI: So describe this vendor. How would that work? So when the vendor would come, how did he get there and what kind of wares did he have?

KY: I don't know how he came, but he would just, if I remember I don't remember that clearly but, he had a truck and he had all sorts of Japanese foods and that's all I remember.

TI: So when you say truck, so he would open the back of the truck and it would all be like a display there?

KY: Right, if I remember correctly.

TI: And when he came and opened up, was it like a... all the mothers would go out there and shop and look at things?

KY: Yeah.

TI: How about kids, did he have things like candy or anything do you remember?

KY: I don't remember our surrounding the truck with that kind of... I don't think though whether that I even... I don't remember that. I don't think so.

TI: And then every once and a while you would go into Oakland and there was the larger Japanese store.

KY: Yeah, you had your Japanese stores.

TI: And when you went to Oakland was there anything memorable in terms of a particular store or activity?

KY: I think I remember the sweet store, they had a sweet store. So we used to go in there.

TI: And when you say sweet store, back then was that like manju type?

KY: Yes.

TI: How about church? Did you attend church?

KY: No, since there were so few Japanese, there were no organizations as such. And it was only... we did not attend church, but just before we were sent to camp, somehow we started to go to the United Methodist Church and that was my first experience of going to a Christian church.

TI: And where was that located?

KY: This was in Richmond.

TI: And so at the United Methodist, it must have been primarily a white church?

KY: Yes.

TI: And do you know why your family decided to go?

KY: Well, I think she came to the house and I don't know, we just started to go, I guess. I don't remember.

TI: And when you say she came to the house.

KY: It was a woman, a woman who came.

TI: How about things like do you recall any picnics or anything like that in Richmond with your family and maybe some other families, anything like that?

KY: Not really, my mother was a great one to take us to... because we lived near San Francisco Bay and so she would take us to the beach very often. So much of our activity my mother really provided for us.

TI: Now you were the oldest daughter, and as a child, before going to school, what language did you speak?

KY: Well, I was mostly Japanese and it was very fairly traumatic for me to start school and I didn't adjust very well. If I remember correctly, my mother, it was really... I had a difficult time getting started in school. And eventually I got over it but I think going to school was a traumatic experience for me. I think that it's not fair to kind of know, but it was quite an adjustment because we had lived in a very sheltered kind of environment.

TI: It sounds like you were very perhaps Japanese.

KY: Exactly.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.