<Begin Segment 6>

MN: Now, you mentioned all the grammar schools. Which grammar school did you go to?

TY: The first grammar school I went was Hawthorne, Hawthorne Grammar School. And then they built, the population was getting thicker so they built a grammar school called Wiseburn Grammar School, and then after Wiseburn Grammar School was built then we transferred from Hawthorne to Wiseburn. And that's where I graduated.

MN: Now, at Hawthorne and also at Wiseburn, can you tell me what the racial makeup of the students were?

TY: They say Wiseburn was about seventy, I don't know what it was, seventy percent, or thirty percent white and seventy percent Japanese, because the Hijis and Yamashitas and Nishimotos and Hasegawas, and so I don't know what the, what the student body was, but all the area people went to Wiseburn, Wiseburn Grammar School.

MN: So you're telling me that there were more Japanese American students than there were hakujin students.

TY: More or less, because hakujin -- okay, let me, let me make this a little more better. See, the Johnson ranch, okay, all the Japanese lived on Johnson ranch, so then a lot of Japanese, right? So then from Inglewood Avenue east was Hawthorne, Hawthorne proper, so there's no ranches over there, no vegetables, nothing, all residential, so that's where all the hakujin people lived and the Japanese lived on this farm like on the Johnson ranch. So that's why there's more Japanese. And then they built this Wiseburn Grammar School, I think, within the Johnson ranch. That's why there's more Japanese in the Wiseburn Grammar School.

MN: Now, on the Johnson ranch, all the Japanese Americans are working on there, were they mostly from Kagoshima like your parents?

TY: Not really. There were Kagoshima people, Hiroshima people, Nagasaki people. As I can remember, a lot of Hiroshima people and Kumamoto people were there, and a lot of other prefecture people there, but there were more Hiroshima, I think. The Kagoshimas were only the Hijis, like Chiyoko Nishimori Hiji, us, Nakamuras, yeah, about three or four families, the Seinos, Kiyono, Hondo. So quite a few Kagoshima people there, yeah.

MN: Now, while you were growing up on the Johnson ranch, did you attend Japanese school?

TY: Yes.

MN: And which Japanese school did the kids on the Johnson ranch go to?

TY: Johnson ranch people went to Japanese school, name was West Hawthorne, West Hawthorne Japanese School.

MN: Now, explain to us the difference between West Hawthorne and East Hawthorne.

TY: Okay. As I can remember, as I can recollect, East Hawthorne was, East Hawthorne Japanese School was built already because there were a lot of people in the east Hawthorne side because prior we moving to Johnson ranch, there were Japanese farmers already in the east Hawthorne area. I don't know what the ranch, they called that, but they had a big section over there, about two sections, maybe one thousand acres or more, and a lot of Japanese farmers were there. And then that's why the East Hawthorne Japanese School was created in that area. That was east of Hawthorne between Washington Boulevard, you know Washington Boulevard where the Washington High School is, and Eucalyptus, Eucalyptus Avenue, I guess it was. In between there was all Japanese. That's why that call that area East Hawthorne, with the Japanese community, that's why the East Hawthorne was built there. And so not that we couldn't go there, but we went over there. I don't know how long we went over there, but we went there a couple times. And the parents on the east, west Hawthorne decided that that's too far to cart the kids every week or whatever. They decided to buy a building and they bought a building and set it up on the Leuzinger, Leuzinger ranch. That's where the West Hawthorne Japanese School created, on the Leuzinger ranch. Yeah, the Japanese people, let's see... yeah. Within the Leuzinger ranch there, yeah, that's right.

MN: So Leuzinger ranch, I'm assuming, is where Leuzinger High School is now?

TY: No. Leuzinger ranch is between El Segundo Boulevard and Imperial Highway. That was Leuzinger ranch over there, I think a half section or one section. And then south of El Segundo Boulevard was Johnson Ranch. El Segundo Boulevard divided Leuzinger and Johnson ranch, okay, so then West Hawthorne Japanese was on the Leuzinger ranch and Wiseburn Grammar School was on the Johnson ranch area. So the Leuzinger ranch people came to grammar school in Johnson ranch, as I can recollect. So that's how it was.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.