<Begin Segment 8>

TI: How about school? So you're young, you were...

PF: Yeah, I went fourth grade, January I went to school the next year, so 1940, January.

TI: And what was that like?

PF: Everybody looked different. They all wear uniforms. See, that time they wear uniforms, and then the girl wear apron, you know, that apron. And then, oh, it was wintertime, so their nose is running. I always call it, two hanging down, I say, wow, the Japanese people are. Yeah. I was surprised. I was telling my grandmother, and then she said, I said, wow. And then the teacher tell me, "Stand up and read." And then I said, "How could I read that book? If I could read this book, I wouldn't come to Japan."

TI: And you said that to the teacher?

PF: Yeah.

TI: [Laughs] That's unusual, right?

PF: That's what my girlfriend said. They don't talk to teacher, you know, over there they don't talk, no. You can't drop pencil down, you can't do nothing. And then when the teacher come in, you got to bow. Me, I tell 'em, "I can't see their face," so I go like that, said, "No, you got to put your head down." Yeah, they tell me. And then I said, "Well, how could I see then?" The teacher said, "No, you have to bow, put your heads down." Yeah, every little thing you learn, you know. And then the window, it's all window. They line you up like how smart you are. So I just went in there. I had to sit in the front, I'm dumb, but they put me in the back because I'm too tall. That's why they put me in the back. And people think that I'm smart because I'm sitting on the back. But that's how they put you down.

TI: Because you were maybe a little bit older than the other...

PF: No, I was taller.

TI: Just taller?

PF: Yeah. Because when you're lined up, they lined the tall one like this, I was the second tall.

TI: That's interesting. When you were in San Jose, were you the tallest?

PF: No, no, no, we were middle. We were middle, San Jose, middle.

TI: In Japan, but you were the tallest.

PF: Yeah, first or second like that. And then the exercise, lined you up. So I was two.

TI: And how did your classmates treat you in Japan?

PF: They're nice, they talked to me. But when we sit down, my sister and I, we sit down, the guys come and sit down by us. [Laughs] They sit down by us. And then one guy went like that to my sister so I gave him like that. Oh, he looked and then I told my sister, "Don't let him touch you." And then my sister said, "It's all right, he doesn't harm." Said, "No." They get kind of fresh, huh? [Laughs]

TI: Now were they more "fresh" because you were American, or did they do it to all girls?

PF: They're kind of like, we're like museum people. Because it was kind of new. Nobody came from America or something. So they all want to sit down and stare at us. They stare at us, yeah.

TI: Well, was it because you looked different?

PF: Yeah, we looked different, we walked different. See, I was more straight here, and so our dress is like that. See, they were more smaller. And we walked different, and we talked different, see, so they liked to sit down and listen to my sister and I, but we talk English.

TI: Oh, that's interesting.

PF: Yeah, we talk English, because you could talk. But after the war, we couldn't talk. Before the war, we could talk English, my sister and I. And then I said, here's this guy coming, I said, "Watch it." He sat down, and then he listened to us because we'd talk English. Yeah, it was like that every day. And I hated to go school because... my grandmother said I have to go school, yeah.

TI: Now why did you hate going to school? Because you were treated differently?

PF: Yeah, all the time they come close to us, yeah. And I said, "Why don't they go away? We're not no animal." They look at us and everything like that, so we didn't like it. But after that I got used to it.

TI: Now were there any Japanese who were just curious about America, and they would just want to ask you questions about America and what happens...

PF: Yeah, yeah, yeah. They'll... "big nose, what are they?" Then I tell 'em they're all nice people, yeah. And then they got everything, so American, we don't have to buy things. Japan, you have to buy the pencil, the papers and all that, yeah. The teacher was nice, it was nice teacher, yeah. They said, "Why you came to Japan?" So we have to learn Japanese. Because we had a Japanese school, but our teacher don't go fast and we're just Book 1 or 2, you know. So my father wanted me to learn Japanese.

TI: Now during this time, before the war, did you get letters from your family?

PF: Yeah, yeah, we did. We'd get letters and everything like that. But after the war, they cut it open. But my father used to write to us. And I always write so big, like I use two paper and my sister could use half a paper, she writes it. Me, I write it big. My father always, I always have to write with two papers, let him know what's happening and this and that. And then he always say, Japanese say, "Shimbosei, shimbosei," like that. "Take care of yourself," like that, and, "study hard." And I said, "How long we got to stay here?"

TI: [Laughs] You always asked that in your letter?

PF: Yeah.

TI: Because you wanted to go back. You wanted to go back to the States?

PF: Yeah. I was not gonna stay there, no. I said, "To live, no way. I don't want to grow up like that."

TI: And how about your sister? How did she like living...

PF: She like it. She like it. She went to, they call it "bride school" and learn Japanese costume-making. She went to there. And so she get to sew and make things, yeah. And then they get to sell it like that. But not me, I didn't. I said, "I'm not staying here."

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.