<Begin Segment 4>

MN: Now which grammar school did you go to?

MY: Micheltorena. It was on Sunset Boulevard and Micheltorena.

MN: So now you're starting a new grammar school. Was it difficult for you to adjust?

MY: No, I really liked it. In fact, I still remember the third grade teacher. But I was talking to one of the fellows that I met later that was in after I had left Shonien, and he says he had the same teacher. [Laughs] That was like fifteen years later.

MN: Why did this third grade teacher leave an impression on you?

MY: She taught us a lot about Hawaii. She loved Hawaii so lot of the... we learned Hawaiian songs and things like that, but she left a real impression on me.

MN: Was this a hakujin teacher?

MY: What?

MN: Was this a hakujin teacher?

MY: Yes.

MN: And what was the student demographics like at Micheltorena?

MY: Mostly I guess ninety-five percent Caucasian. There were a few Japanese there like myself only there was a few.

MN: And how did they treat you?

MY: Like anybody else. I think since I was one of the few Japanese in our class, I think I was treated like anybody else. I never felt like I was treated badly.

MN: Now for lunch did the Shonien provide you with a bag lunch to take to school?

MY: Yeah, we took a bag lunch to school. It had a couple of sandwiches like two piece of bread... I hate to say it, but it had oleo on it and it had a piece of lettuce, that was one sandwich. They had a peanut butter sandwich and no jam, just peanut butter, but they used to put... they mix it with like honey... what's that... it's like honey but anyway, they mix it with this and it was sweet. It was good, I liked that. And then they usually have an apple or orange. So we put it in a paper bag, we take it to school, and you couldn't throw the paper bag away, you had to bring it home. So when you'd come home, you go to the office, you take the bag and you say, "Tadaima, kaerimashita. Oyatsu kudasai." Oyastu is a snack so they give us a couple pieces of senbei or those yellow, hard yellow candy, but we would always get a snack.

MN: Did they serve milk with the oyatsu?

MY: No, just get the snack, that's it.

MN: And I guess they wanted to conserve on the paper bags. Is that why?

MY: Yeah, until it got pretty raggedy, well, we'd take it. No matter what it looked like, you still had to bring it home.

MN: How long did you have a paper bag? Like did you get a new one every month?

MY: Well whenever, I don't know, every now and then you'd see a new one but you used it for quite a while.

MN: So you know in your sandwiches you mentioned the oleo with the lettuce and the peanut butter and I heard also about the beets.

MY: We used to have beets once in a while, sliced beets they would put in. Sliced cucumbers... but whatever they could use. But I remember the beet sandwiches. In fact, when I was going to school there was this one Japanese fellow that became one of my real good friends and he'd look at my sandwich and he'd say, "How can you eat that?" And so from then he used to have his mother make me one of those and it was ham, bologna, cheese, lettuce, and tomatoes, I mean... anyway, he used to have his mother make me a sandwich every day. And every day he would bring an extra nickel for me and we'd go get an ice cream. And I'll never forget him. He used to have a bicycle that he used to ride to school so he would go home with me from school, I'd ride his bike, he'd walk and I'd ride all over. And I would never forget him so he was one of my friends from the third grade 'til I left Shonien. I left when I was eighteen.

MN: Did he visit you at the Shonien?

MY: What?

MN: Did he visit you at the Shonien?

MY: No, he didn't visit me but he would walk up to Shonien and I'd ride the bike and from then he'd get on his bike and go home. I guess his family wondered how come it take him so long to get home. But he knew that I didn't have a bike, he just wanted me to enjoy a little bike ride.

MN: What was his name?

MY: George Ishitani. So later we both got in the service and ended up in Camp Holabird in Baltimore. So every month when we get our paycheck, first thing is I'd take him out go have a little chop suey dinner, but I never forget him. He was such a good friend.

MN: So going back to your routine at the Shonien, you came home, you said, "Tadaima, kaerimashita. Oyatsu kudasai." So you got your oyatsu, what happens after that?

MY: Well, we got to play until suppertime.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.