<Begin Segment 28>
LH: Frank, can you tell me a little bit about what your grade school experience was like back on Bainbridge Island?
FK: I don't have any recollections of having a tough time with English. So I think we must have, spoken English most the time we were in Minidoka. I do remember a couple of my neighbors who actually went to Moses Lake, because they were able to leave the Island before they rescinded that order, that if you got off the Island in time, you didn't have to be evacuated or sent, or interned. When they came to the Island and entered first grade, I think they had a tough time with English. They didn't understand English very well and didn't speak very much English. I remember trying to help them with instructions and stuff, because I understood Japanese a little bit. I probably understood more Japanese then, than I do now. And in fact I remember once, this teacher telling me that I had to quit doing things for them, because they had to be able to speak for themselves. And I thought, and felt a little hurt about that, but then I thought, "Well, that's true." [Laughs]
So, so I tried to cool myself down there for a little while, instead of jumping in and trying to help them with stuff. And I, and I thought that was very true. And in fact, that's interesting, because I kind of remembered that for a long time... that you just don't jump in and do things for people if you're gonna, if they want to, you know develop themselves or... and you can't assume that you just know what's, what they're thinking and doing. Yeah. And I remember, I remember the three of us getting in the wrong line once after recess and ending up in a 4th grade class. And we kind of knew we were in the wrong line, but we didn't know quite what to do with it. [Laughs] So we went to this 4th grade class and the teacher there looked at us and obviously she knew we didn't belong there, I mean we looked different. [Laughs] So she had to figure out where we were supposed to go and I remember that. [Laughs]
<End Segment 28> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.