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BN: Was the area you lived in... I mean, was it segregated by ethnicity, pretty much everybody was Japanese?
GK: Oh, yes. Yes. And then we had the other camp where the Portuguese lived. And we didn't call them Portuguese, it was "Portogee."
BN: Among the Japanese who lived there, were they mostly, was there a dominant group in terms of where they were from in Japan?
GK: Not that I remember. But there was one place called the section camp, and that was where the people lived that took care of the railroad tracks of Oahu Railway. And that camp, I remember, were all from one prefecture, Kumamoto-ken. And they speak a different kind of Japanese. But I remember that from that camp, they used to take care of the tracks. And they used to have a small car that ran on the track. In the beginning, it was a car that you had to pump, hand. And later on, they got a gasoline car to do that.
BN: Where did you go to high school?
GK: Oh, I went to Waialua High School until my senior year. And for my senior year, I went to McKinley High School.
BN: Why did you switch over?
GK: Well, according to what my brother told me, was that if I go to Waialua High School and graduate there, I won't be able to go to University of Hawaii. I don't know why, but that's what he said. So for my senior year, high school, I went to McKinley and I lived with my brother. But that wasn't the reason why I had to go to McKinley. I believe that my mother had a hard time raising all the children, so I was sent out to live with my brother.
BN: Where did your brother live?
GK: Kaimuki. Nineteenth Avenue.
BN: Which brother was this?
GK: The eldest, Shiro. He was, by then, an attorney. He graduated University of Michigan, I think.
BN: So you graduated from McKinley High in what year?
GK: Huh?
BN: What year did you graduate?
GK: 1939 or '40.
BN: And you went on to the University of Hawaii.
GK: Yes. And I was in the second year, I think, the war started.
<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.