<Begin Segment 6>
MN: Now, by the time you started kindergarten, were you speaking English?
AS: Still Japanese. You were not allowed to speak (English) at home (...).
MN: Your father was very strict about that.
AS: Very strict; very strict.
MN: So how did you get by in kindergarten?
AS: Very difficult. The teacher even asked my mother if I had a bladder problem because I had to constantly go to the bathroom just to get away.
MN: Is it because you didn't understand what was going on and you just wanted to get out of the classroom?
AS: Probably so. I can't remember the ifs and whys. All I know is I asked to go to the bathroom.
MN: So did your parents take you out of the school or you continued to go there and you learned English quickly? Is that what happened?
AS: I guess so, eventually. I was held back for a year. I do remember that my mother was quite concerned, so she would always be there by the fence waiting for me when school was out.
MN: By the time you started grammar school, were you speaking English?
AS: I was in grammar school then.
MN: Oh, I'm sorry, kindergarten and then grammar school was the same?
AS: I guess so. It was on Breed Street School.
MN: What was the ethnic makeup of Breed Street School?
AS: Mostly Caucasians. I can't remember.
MN: What about Japanese school? Which Japanese school did you attend?
AS: Onodera (Gakuen), every day after school.
MN: How did you like Japanese school?
AS: I didn't like it at the time, but I liked my teacher, who was a (nice) young man. That's all I remember.
MN: That's why you liked him.
AS: (I guess so).
MN: Okay, on Sundays, which Sunday school did you attend?
AS: Nichibei Kyokai on Third Street.
MN: What memories do you have of Sunday school?
AS: My sister, my married sister at the time, lived across the street. Nichiren church, during the war, (kept) some of our furniture in storage for us. (It was burglarized).
MN: I was going to say, I've seen pictures of it being raided.
AS: Right.
<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.