<Begin Segment 7>

TI: So let's go back to school. So when you first came to San Francisco, talk about what it was like, and what grade did you go in, can you remember that?

GN: Grammar school, what grade was it? It wasn't kindergarten, what grade was I in? I can't remember.

TI: Because you were, what six years old?

GN: Let me see. No, I was...

TI: Oh, that's right, this is...

GN: Yeah, about eight or ten, nine or ten years old, I think. Because we were four years in camp, right? '44 to '48.

TI: Yeah, we had '47.

GN: '47, okay, '47 then.

TI: So you'd be, like, nine years old?

GN: About nine years old.

TI: So typically that's about third or fourth grade.

GN: Around there, third, yeah. And I just sat there. [Laughs] I didn't know what's going on, but I sat there.

TI: Because at this point, do you remember what language you spoke? Right before coming to San Francisco, was it Japanese? We were talking about this earlier, whether it was Spanish or Japanese, and you thought it was Japanese?

GN: Yeah, a mix of Japanese and a little Spanish. Slowly started to learn English in school, but I still wasn't quite fluent in English. So I guess the teachers found out that I was having that problem, and put me in a special class for a foreigner that didn't speak English. So it was a special class that they put us in. But even then I felt kind of bad, you know, different again, you know. But that's what it was. Then I began to get used to being able to speak English. I used to enjoy school more, and I like art, so I was doing a lot of drawing and things like that, and the teachers found out I could draw pretty good and they would ask me to, if I could come to their house and paint picture on the wall for their kids.

TI: The teachers would ask you to do that?

GN: Yeah, right, on the weekend, and they'll feed me lunch and everything. I was doing that as a kid in grammar school. And soon after that, I went to junior high school, middle school they call it now. But junior high school, I still felt bad, being a foreigner. I didn't try to... and I was behind in class, I was one grade lower than normal. Then the teacher found out how old I was and said, "Oh, you can't be in this class." I go, "If so, then move me up to another class." Even in middle school, the grammar school that I went to, they remembered me and they asked whether I can go in their grammar school and do some painting for them, for the stage, you know. From junior high school to go to grammar school and do this, so they asked the teacher if they can do this, and they arranged it so I did that.

TI: Wow, so you must have been a really outstanding artist for them to...

GN: I don't.

TI: ...for them to remember and want this.

GN: I just liked drawing, so that's what I did.

TI: Did you keep any of the work you did when you were in junior high school?

GN: No. But art was my major after that, I continued on to high school art. I did a lot of things for high school, the teachers, my art teacher asked me to design a placemat for the Teacher's Association, they had a dinner party and I had to design a placemat for them, and things like that. I began to kind of fit in more.

TI: So you were really known for your art, that seems like what people would...

GN: I guess. I didn't feel that I was anything special.

TI: Well, for teachers and others to really be so interested and wanting you to do so much.

GN: I guess.

TI: Yeah, I'm really curious, I would love to see some of our artwork.

GN: I know. Like in grammar school, they called me from the junior high school to go do some painting for this stage, they had a big stage and I had to draw some trees and things like that, big trees. I did that, oh, I remember I did that. So I began to kind of forget about being a foreigner as I went on my life. And in high school, I even worked for the principal of the school. And during my, one of my class, I think I it was my physical education class, instead of going to that, I was working for the principal.

TI: Doing artwork type of stuff?

GN: No, not artwork, just in the office. I don't know how I got that job, but they picked me. That was something different, and I felt good about that.

TI: And that was good, I mean, I think most kids your age would not want to miss PE.

GN: PE, yeah. But besides that, I joined the basketball team and tennis team, so that was okay.

TI: Okay, so that was more after your school.

GN: Right, right. So I enjoyed high school, lot of things that made me feel good.

TI: So let's talk about the community. As you're growing up and you're learning English, what kind of community activities were you doing? Things like, you mentioned a little bit about sports, like did you play basketball, do Boy Scouts? What were some of the other things that you were doing?

GN: Yeah. The Japanese community, of course, the church, the Konkokyo church, they sponsored a Boy Scout, they just started to have this Boy Scout program. And we were the first Boy Scouts or Cub Scouts to start this...

TI: Is the Troop 58?

GN: Right. Yeah, we were the original, my brothers and I were the original group that started this. We were in there from, until we were, well, until we were about, over twenty years old, still in the Boy Scouts.

TI: Oh, I thought you couldn't, I thought at some age, don't they kick you out?

GN: No, we were an Explorer. After Boy Scout then you go to Explorer, right? And a good program, we had a great drum and bugle corps, very famous in San Francisco. And we used to march every, all kinds of parties and parades. Lot of awards, and we had a great basketball team, we had three basketball teams.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2019 Densho. All Rights Reserved.