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TI: Well, since you talked about school, let's talk about your school. So if someone, if your friends were to describe Jack at school, how would they describe you?

JK: Well, kind of crazy, I guess. Although, god, this is kind of vain of me, but I hooked up with a young lady that I went to school with, whom I haven't seen since 1942, I met her late last year.

TI: And so you were, like, about twelve years old back then?

JK: We were, no, no, this was when we were, we were in the third grade together.

TI: Okay, so since you were seven...

JK: Yeah, we knew each other since the third grade, or second or third grade, and then we parted company, and she's one year older than me now. Anyway, I emailed her and I said, "I'd like to introduce myself." Through a connection I found out where she was, and I says, "I don't know whether you remember or not," but she said, I said, "I'm Jack Kubota and we were in the eighth... when I left for camp and everything." And she emailed me back and says -- and back then everybody called me Jackie -- she says, "Oh, I remember you, Jackie." Comma. Said, "You had a wild personality." And I thought, oh my god, I said I wonder, I must've been a badass -- excuse me -- bad kid. [Laughs] So anyway, so yeah, but no, as far as school is concerned, in my childhood life there, no, we had fun in school. I mean, I never felt, I never felt anything other than being part of the gang, except when they wouldn't let me go swimming with 'em.

TI: Now, when you mention this woman was a year older than you, did you, were you younger in your class than the other students? Or was she just a grade ahead of you?

JK: No, it's a long story. But remember I told you I have an older brother? Okay, well he's two years older than me, so when he went off to school, I followed him to school every day 'cause I wanted to hang out with my brother, and then, but then they'd always make me come home. My mother had to... so then it kept going on 'cause I just wanted, didn't want to be at home without my brother, so the next school year my mother and father lied and told 'em that I was older than I was. [Laughs]

TI: Because you were just such a nuisance when he would go to school. [Laughs]

JK: That's right. [Laughs] So then, so then I sneaked into school, but by the time I got into second grade, a teacher called my mom and said, "What's with this kid? How come he's always crying? They're not supposed to cry anymore like this when they get to school." And he says, "Well, actually he's not six or seven, he's only five." Or some cockamamie, but that, yeah, apparently that's what happened. So actually yeah, I started school pretty early.

TI: Okay. That's good. And besides regular school, did you go to Japanese school?

JK: Yeah, Nihon gakko, you betcha. Remember I told you my parents were like the classic Isseis. They want their kids to get educated.

TI: And was this an everyday situation, or a weekend thing?

JK: Every Saturday.

TI: And describe that. Who else was in that class?

JK: Mostly, between the Buddhist church and the Protestant church we went to, most of the families that could afford it all sent their Nisei children to Nihon gakko.

TI: So like in your class, were you there with your brother, or was it just your grade?

JK: Yeah, I seem to remember my brother. Like my two older sisters, they were totally immersed in it, so yeah, they were never in a classroom with us, that I remember.

TI: And about how many people would be in Japanese, your Japanese class?

JK: Maybe twenty, thirty kids. Maybe we were all in one room.

TI: You know, and going back to your regular school, I forgot to ask this, in terms of just the racial makeup, I mean, how many other Japanese were in, like, your class?

JK: If I could get a picture, maybe, like in my class, maybe there was two or three. But see, El Centro, the farming communities where, mostly the truck farmers were all in the rural areas, El Centro was the big city there and it's the capital of the county, it's county seat. And so I'm sure there were a lot more there. In fact, today you go down there, in the city of Imperial the football field's named Shimamoto Field. That's a big family that was there for many, many years. They're one of the few families that went back there after World War II, 'cause they owned the property there.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.