<Begin Segment 7>

MN: Now, I want to ask a little bit about your schooling. Which grammar school did you attend?

YH: Let's see, I think I went to Garfield Elementary School, and Miss Morgan was my kindergarten teacher.

MN: And what was the ethnic makeup of Garfield?

YH: At that time I was the only Japanese American girl going there, and there was one other Japanese American boy going there. His last name was Kuroda, and the children there would tease me about him, but I didn't pay any attention.

MN: So the rest of the student body, were they all hakujin?

YH: Yes.

MN: And then other than being teased about this other student, Kuroda, did they tease you about being Japanese American?

YH: No.

MN: What are your memories of attending Garfield?

YH: Well, they had a cafeteria, and my mother always gave us a nickel and packed a lunch, like a half a sandwich and a fourth of a candy bar, and then she'd tell us to buy soup. So the soup, the nickel was for the soup, so we always had a sandwich and soup.

MN: Now Garfield, what grade did you go, from what grade to what grade was Garfield?

YH: Kindergarten to sixth grade.

MN: And then from sixth grade did you go straight to high school?

YH: No, I went to junior high school.

MN: Which junior high school did you go to?

YH: Washington Irving Junior High School.

MN: And what was the ethnic makeup of Washington Irving?

YH: I think, I don't remember any Japanese Americans there and I don't remember any blacks or any Hispanics, so it must've been all, me the only the Japanese American and the rest were whites.

MN: Now I want to ask a little bit about your parents. What did your father do for a living?

YH: He was a wholesale producer.

MN: And what about your mother?

YH: My mother helped him at the grocery store. He had the produce department of two grocery stores, so my mother helped him at the Magnolia Market store.

MN: And the Magnolia Market is in Long Beach?

YH: Yes, on Magnolia Avenue.

MN: Did you have to help out at the store?

YH: Sometimes. Well, I would go there every afternoon after school. My father would pick me up at school and then I would go to the Magnolia store and stand on a box and wash all the carrots.

MN: Now, you were born right before the Great Depression.

YH: Yes.

MN: And your sisters were born during the Depression.

YH: Right.

MN: Did your parents have a problem feeding the family?

YH: No, 'cause he was in the wholesale produce business, so we always had enough fruits and vegetables. And then we didn't eat much meat anyway to begin with, mostly fruits and vegetables.

MN: So your mother, what kind of cooking did she do at home, American or Japanese?

YH: She, I think she did both, but I think mostly Japanese. 'Cause she would make, with pork bones she would make a mixture of tomatoes and the pork bones and, oh, I just remember that, but she may have put some string beans in there, so that's what we ate with rice.

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