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VY: Were there other Japanese, Japanese American families in that area?

BT: Oh, yes, quite a few. In fact, they had a Buddhist church there.

VY: What kind of businesses, the Japanese-owned businesses do you remember in San Mateo?

BT: Well, I remember the grocery store, Takahashi grocery store that they had. But most of them, that was about the only one cleaner, there was one cleaner, I think. There were, in fact, two cleaners in San Mateo, the Sunrise and Blue. But those were about the only kinds of businesses, and the rest were either landscape gardeners, that kind of independent contractors.

VY: So what are some of your first childhood memories, then, of growing up in San Mateo?

BT: Well, we had to walk to school. So we just walked from where we lived, and walked to Lawrence School, which was a pretty far walk. But we used to do that without any problems. My mother made lunchbags for us, so that's what we took. So it wasn't... nothing that I remember that was frightening or whatever, we just walked. And then when we got to Lawrence School, then many of us Japanese Americans, we played handball, so we would play handball. Then, later on, before the war, some of the girls who were raised in Japan and had an education, they came back to the United States, and they knew a lot of the games that they used to play on dirt. So we used to do a lot of that kind of, we'd meet on the, what they call Steal the Treasure, which were rocks, and you'd have to go around this area and get inside and get that rock and bring it back to your side. And then if you got tagged, then you're out, so you try not to get tagged, that kind of a game that we used to play. But it was fun, but it was primarily playing amongst ourselves, Japanese Americans, and not with the other Caucasians or other schoolmates. In class, we were naturally together and so on, but recess-time and so on, we normally stuck together amongst us Japanese Americans.

VY: So what was your relationship like with your parents?

BT: My father didn't say too much, but I think I was a bad boy, or had very bad backtalk and that kind of thing, because I remember being tied up and put down in the basement for a while. [Laughs]

VY: From your father?

BT: Yeah, my father and them, so my mother, later on, would feel sorry for me and come and untie my... but he didn't hit us, but I remember being stuck in the basement several times. So I must have been a pretty bad boy. [Laughs]

VY: Did that happen to your other siblings also, or was it just you?

BT: I think my younger brother, he's deceased now, but I think he and I were the ones that were bad. Now, I'm talking about the time when, from 1934, after we moved to San Mateo, my mother took us, six of us, my two older brothers, two older sisters, myself and my younger brother, my mother took all six of us to Japan. Because in those days, it was the custom to send their sons and daughters to Japan to get a Japanese education, not so much because the education was better, but to learn Japanese language so that... because there was a lot of discrimination in those days, job discrimination. So many of them would do that, families would do that, send their sons and daughters to Japan to learn Japanese language. And then hoping that when they came back or became adults, that they would get a job with a Japanese company who were, at that time, in the 1930s, they were beginning to form in Hawaii and in the mainland U.S. So that was the reason that they were going to Japan to get that Japanese language education.

VY: So all six of you went?

BT: Yeah, all six of us went, but my two older brothers were the ones that stayed. My oldest sister was also supposed to stay, but she protested so much. And the reason for her was that for a Japanese, she was slim and tall, taller than most (girls), so she was being harassed a lot by her schoolmates and so on, so she didn't like it, so she cried and didn't want to stay in Japan. So my mother felt sorry, and so when we came back after six months of being in Japan, we left our two older brothers and then the rest of us, we returned to San Mateo after six months in Japan.

VY: I see. So you're probably around six or seven at that time?

BT: Yeah, I was four when I left, but I remember a few things about what happened. In fact, I remember my grandfather taking us to see a circus, but he put me on the backside of a bicycle and we drove there and had to go up, climb up to a higher (seating area) by climbing up a ladder. I remember I was very scared to go up by ladder to the area where we could see the performance. And I remember my grandfather helping us doing things and so on, so I remember a little bit of that. And then coming back on the ship, I remember watching this play on the ship. It was a skit where someone gets behind another person and puts his hand out and then has some noodles and with chopsticks, tries to serve the noodles, but he misses so he's pushing the noodle all over the face, and so on. So I remember that part, because later on in my life, I remembered that part and made my own skit and did a lot of that skit, too, in San Mateo when we had these different opportunities. But yeah, so I remember some things like that, even when I was four. Must have been something different.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2019 Densho. All Rights Reserved.