<Begin Segment 3>

MN: Which grammar school did you attend?

AI: I went to Gardena Elementary School, I started there.

MN: What was the racial makeup of Gardena Grammar School?

AI: I think few Japanese, because Japanese population wasn't that big then back in... late 1920. Although we did have a Japanese school so there was some, but compared to now I would say percentage wise I think it wasn't that big a percentage for Japanese population.

MN: So was the other rest of the population Caucasian?

AI: Caucasians.

MN: How did you do academically in grammar school?

AI: [Laughs] You had to ask that. I guess I was kind of talkative in a class and I used to sit in the corner on a high stool. Otherwise, that's about all I can remember in that school wise. Academically I don't know, probably not too good.

MN: Is this the school that had the big walnut tree in the front?

AI: No, that was in the Japanese school.

MN: Tell me about Japanese school. Did you go every day or after school or on Saturdays?

AI: Every day after school we used to go to Gardena Elementary with the bus and the bus would take us to Japanese school on the return trip, then they'll drop us. From Japanese school the parents have to come after us because bus will not pick up from the Japanese school because bus was for the Gardena Elementary School.

MN: Who paid for this bus?

AI: I guess the school. So tax money I assume.

MN: So this bus picked you up in the morning, took you to Gardena Grammar School, picked you up, went to... sent you to Japanese school and after that your parents picked you up?

AI: Right.

MN: And this is where the big walnut tree was?

AI: Yes.

MN: Did you eat a lot of walnuts?

AI: Oh, yeah, we did. We'd pick off the ground, we didn't pick off the tree, what's on the ground.

MN: How did you crack the walnuts?

AI: Probably rock.

MN: And then so on Saturdays and Sundays did you have to help on the farm? I know you're very young.

AI: Never helped on the farm. Playing was our day at work.

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