<Begin Segment 6>

TI: You mentioned, just in terms of talking with her, I wanted to ask about your Japanese ability, Japanese language ability. Did you go to Japanese school?

KT: Yeah, I went to Japanese school. But it was so often that my brother and I would do something and then our teacher would say, "Kaere," so we would say, "Thank you," grab our jacket and walk out. [Laughs]

TI: So say it again, why would the teacher say that to you?

KT: Because we would be disturbing all the other students.

TI: So the teacher essentially kicked you out of class. [Laughs]

KT: Yeah. [Laughs] It was, you go to the public school and then, well, if you go to three, four, five hours and then you, you go to Japanese school, then you got to sit there a couple hours. And that, that wasn't my, well, that wasn't my thing.

TI: Okay, so it sounds like you weren't a really...

KT: I would, we learned some. We learned katakana, hiragana and a few kanjis, simple kanjis. But I really didn't like that Japanese school. It was, and I regretted it after I went to Camp Savage, but... [laughs]

TI: Right, when you had to learn Japanese. Let's talk about regular school. How did you like regular school?

KT: I didn't do too good, because when I was in the third grade I cut my left eye, and being in the country, the doctor didn't treat it right, it got infected and I lost the sight. And I had a hard time reading. I get tired of reading, so mostly I relied on just hearing what they said. So I don't know, I wasn't an honor student or anything like that. [Laughs]

TI: So in third grade, you mentioned this, I guess this cut in your eye. What happened?

KT: We were carving with the knife and everybody was monkeying around, then I was getting something and somebody else was getting something, then he comes up with the knife and he just, all of a sudden I felt the pain. Yeah, I got hurt a lot. Second grade, I fell off the fence and broke my arm.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.