<Begin Segment 6>

MN: Now your parents are both in Hiroshima. Did the people in El Centro have like a Hiroshima Kenjinkai?

MT: Oh, yes. We used to go to the church in El Centro and then get together there.

MN: Were there picnics? Kenjinkai picnics?

MT: Well, we'd do picnics once in a while, but not too much, because people were working too hard and too many hours.

MN: So when you gathered at El Centro, what sort of programs did you have?

MT: At the church?

MN: Uh-huh.

MT: Well, we used to go to Japanese school, Saturday they have schools and then Sunday, half a day, and then they make us to go a church. But then after that, we'd just play. But actually, you didn't have any playground to play in as a kid. It's not like right now, 'cause kids have a lot of places, parks to go to. But the only place that we really could play on the grass like that would be where the high school was, high school ground and you got grass there. But otherwise, you didn't have any, what they call a real park.

MN: So this Japanese school that you went to, was it a Christian church or a Buddhist church?

MT: That's a Buddhist church, 'cause it's a Buddhist church, and then they have their own religion. But that's why I say I don't have a religion. [Laughs]

MN: How strict were the teachers there?

MT: They were from Japan, though. They were farmers, too, though. I guess if they had a high school education or something like that, they could be teachers. They got the Japanese schools books, and they just teach the books, how to read it and write it. But that's a hard way to learn. It's not like an American school; it's different. And it just... well, they didn't learn how to teach, so they just say, well, this is ka or mi or ni or whatever. That's all you learn. And then they tell you to write it, just write it over and over until you can write it pretty good. Like me, I have very good penmanship, so I had a hard time reading mine.

MN: Did you have to learn, like, the Kimigayo?

MT: Oh, yes. That's at first. They sing that, and then that was it.

MN: So Japanese school was all day Saturday?

MT: Yes. Well, eight hours, from morning to noon. So my father had to bring us to school and go home and farm. In the meantime, my mother was out there telling the Mexicans what to do. She had to lead 'em, and then he'd go over there. And then when he had to pick us up and he'd leave 'em and come after us, go back again and work some more. That was the life for me.

MN: So you were having lunch at Japanese school. What sort of lunch did you pack?

MT: Whatever my mother made. I love the musubi and nigiri. She'll have chicken because we have our own chicken, she'll maybe put in a couple of pieces of chicken and vegetables that we had, she'd cook and we'd take that. But it's nothing like right what you have here, though. It's just plain. You cook it with shoyu, that's about it. They don't have too much miso because they're too expensive.

MN: Did you take the same kind of lunch to regular school?

MT: I used to like to. But a lot of kids, they didn't like to take the nigiri 'cause the Caucasians, "Gee, what is that?" I didn't care. Hey, you eat what you want, I'll eat what I want. But I used to love peanut butter and jam, so I used to take a lot of peanut butter and jam sandwiches to American school.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright &copy; 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.