<Begin Segment 28>

SY: How, what was your own education? Just --

PM: I had people write to me in Japanese and I would always have the dictionary handy, and I would study and read, try to read more books in Japanese. So it just -- and going to Japan as well, and using the language, I became more familiar with even the slang that's so different. And there are so many words now in English that have become Japanese but just the accent is different, so I've had to learn those.

SY: Oh, so you learn those too?

PM: So McDonald's is Makudonaruto. Dodgers is Dojazu. If you say "Dodgers" they don't know what you're talking about, but if you put the right accent on it, then they understand.

SY: And you had to learn all those words.

PM: Yes. [Laughs]

SY: Was that something that our parents insisted upon, your learning Japanese? Was that --

PM: No.

SY: No? When you were young?

PM: I went to Japanese school, yes.

SY: So everybody went to Japanese school back in Boyle Heights?

PM: Yes, I think so.

SY: And so it was just something that everybody did?

PM: Right.

SY: And you weren't against it? Or you didn't --

PM: No, we just did it.

SY: You just did it.

PM: We would go after school, so we came home from school at three o'clock, then we'd proceed to Japanese school, stay 'til, stay there 'til five o'clock or six o'clock and then walk home again.

SY: Every day?

PM: Uh-huh.

SY: And during camp same thing? You would go to school, Japanese school every day?

PM: In camp, no, we didn't have Japanese school.

SY: You didn't have Japanese school.

PM: No. There was one class in Japanese, but it, we didn't have enough people so it had to close.

SY: And then when you came back to Denver, did you go learn --

PM: No, I didn't go.

SY: So all of it is pretty much self-taught, then.

PM: Right, right.

<End Segment 28> - Copyright &copy; 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.