<Begin Segment 8>

TI: Okay. So Molly, earlier you talked about how a lot of the Niseis knew how to speak Japanese, so did you go to Japanese school?

MK: Oh, yes.

TI: So tell me about the Japanese school.

MK: The Japanese schools we had Saturday and Sunday all day, from nine o'clock 'til three o'clock. And we had a husband and wife schoolteacher, and they were from New Westminster. They taught all the Japanese kids in town from...

TI: Monday through Friday?

MK: Yeah, Monday through Friday after school. So I guess then, I don't know, I never went to that kind, but we went all day Saturday and all day Sunday. And they had two rooms, and half of us were in one room and half of us were in the other room. And I always had the man teacher, but the lady teacher, she just died, and we went, when I went back to a reunion she was there, and I was very, very surprised.

TI: 'Cause she would be quite old, then.

MK: Yes, she was, I'm thinking she had to be a hundred. Yeah.

TI: So this was a pretty big commitment for the family, because if your work crew is busy all day Saturday, Sunday going to Japanese school they can't work. Right?

MK: Yeah, but if it was to be cut it would be the English school.

TI: You mean so Japanese school was more important than English school?

MK: That's right. Because all June we didn't go to school, and they allowed it because we had to pick strawberries. And then September we're harvesting, so we don't go to school 'til October. And then, but all the Japanese kids, we took all the top, all the grades, the school grades were graded by one, two, three, four, and it, so both my friend and I, we would compete for first place all through the years. Because he was, his name was Leo Otsuki and he was same grade as me, and I'd come home and I'd have second in the, that month or something, and my father goes, "What happened to first?" And then, so the teacher said, "Tell your father that one month you're first and the next month Leo's first." And so it was, so we competed all, even in Japanese school, him and I were, so we just grew up together.

TI: Interesting. So that was pretty common, so every, every class it was usually a Japanese that was sort of the head of the class.

MK: And you know, and I felt so sorry because if, like my little friend, neighbor, closest farm neighbors, she was like thirteen or something and she changed it. She'd rather get thrashed at school than to get thrashed at home. It was that kibishii. I don't know if you... the Japanese parents or especially the fathers would be very, very adamant about being on top of the class.

TI: So this neighbor was only thirteenth, you said?

MK: Yeah, she was thirteenth in her class and, and...

TI: So she'd get punished at home for that.

MK: Yeah, so she changed it to three instead, and the school punished her, but...

TI: But she would rather have that.

MK: That's right. So it was, I used to think... but I never ranked below second, so I didn't, it wasn't something that...

TI: And how about your other brothers and sisters? Were they also --

MK: Yeah, they were tops in their classes.

TI: How about any other childhood memories in this, when you were a kid? Like fun things, what would you do for fun?

MK: Well, they would, my older brothers would do a carnival and they'd catch snakes and put eggs in there, and then we would, and they would have carnival. And the kids would come with one cent or they would, they would buy candy and stuff like that. And all the neighborhood kids, we used to, at night after work we used to play Ante Ante I Over, we'd throw the ball over the house and then if they catch it they come over and tag you, and stuff like that. We had a ditch running right beside the house and we would pole vault, we would pole vault across there. I mean, we didn't have money. We did, we made our own, we made our own fun. But we had our own team.

TI: Your whole, your family, your brothers and sisters.

MK: Yeah. Because we all... so we really, really had fun things.

TI: Now, what would happen if one of you got in trouble? Like if, what, at school or someplace else where you did something bad.

MK: Well, we would never, we would never tell on our brothers. Because my father, he would, he wouldn't even flick an eye, he'd hit first and then, I mean, all Japanese fathers, they hit first and... but I was so scared by watching my brothers gettin' walloped that I'd, I would never, even my sister, I mean, I would, I toed a very narrow line, I'll tell you, because I just didn't want to. But all the Japanese kids, we couldn't play along the way. We'd have to, so Father bought us a bicycle and we'd all come home, be home in fifteen minutes, and we'd have to go out, we had a little bit of some kind of tea or cookie or something and we'd have to go out and farm until sundown.

TI: So what were some of the chores you'd have to do after school?

MK: We have to pick weeds or we have to pick the berries. Berries have to be picked every day, otherwise they would rot. And we, so it was work. We didn't rest, rain or shine, if it rained we had to clean the chicken house, and then at night we have to come and count all the eggs or clean the eggs and get ready, so it was, but it was, that was the kind of life that... and everybody lived that way. We didn't know no better.

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