Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Frank Miyamoto Interview II
Narrator: Frank Miyamoto
Interviewer: Stephen Fugita
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: March 18, 1998
Densho ID: denshovh-mfrank-02-0007

<Begin Segment 7>

SF: You just mentioned the, the Language School and that must have been a really important institution for the Niseis. Can you kind of describe how that was set up and how, how that related to the lives of Niseis in the '30s?

FM: Yeah. The Language School to my knowledge, the early beginnings of the Language School probably took place within the early 1900s, in the first decade or so. The present Language School building, which you know down on King Street -- Weller. Weller and 16th. That set of buildings was established around 1912 as I recall. And the reason why that thing got going, I'm sure, was -- well there were several reasons. One, the Japanese community was, to a large extent -- in the early years especially -- a community of what might be called sojourners who's intent was to go back to Japan once the family made it's mint of money and could go back as well-established status people. That dream of going back to Japan, you know, disappears in the course of time, but there's always a question remaining in the minds of the Issei, largely because of the discrimination that they encountered, as to whether they could ever make a lasting, established settlement here, or they would have to go back. So, the idea was that the kids ought to be trained in learning Japanese language in order to be prepared if they have to go back to Japan. Secondly, even if there was not that kind of intent of, in going to Japan, the idea was that within the, within the family and within the community the, an understanding of the Japanese language was very important. Therefore, the kids ought to learn the language. And thirdly, if the Nisei were to remain here in the country, their chances, however, of being absorbed into the larger community was not, was far from being sure as very limited and the basis for success and their economic life might hinge very much on a knowledge of both the Japanese, as well as English. And therefore, again the thought that it was important for the Nisei to get a good grasp of the language. So, for all these various reasons then, the Language School was thought to be a, a primary necessary institution. I think 80, 90% of families in the community thought likewise and so it was a common practice for all the families to assume that their kids should go to the Language School in addition to attending the regular public school for language training after the day classes. The school then ran from let us say 3:30 or 4:00 in the afternoon on, after the public schools had finished. And in my experience for example, I would finish my school, public school by 3 o'clock, get on a street car up on Beacon Hill and head for the Language School which was three miles away, perhaps. But the street car was a means of getting there very easily and by 4 o'clock then I'd be in a Language School class. Now as far as the kids were concerned, this was a chore because attendance at school all day in the public school would, was enough of a, a demand and then to additionally go every day to the Language School seemed too much. More importantly, at least in my case, the Language School seemed non-functional. All my friends were hakujin. In the family, I spoke a little Japanese. I necessarily had to speak Japanese to my mother especially, but my contact with my mother was minimal, in the sense that if I could talk enough to get my bread and butter and clothing and a few things like that, that was it. We didn't carry on any, any serious discussions of any kind. So the language requirement was then very minimal.

Given the non-functional language situation for Japanese language, I really had no interest whatsoever in learning the lang -- well I, that isn't true. Occasionally I would think gee, I wish I could learn to speak the language. But to learn to speak the language, I thought I had to learn to read the language. And I guess the fact was that speaking the language was non-functional for me because I was not conversing with my mother very much and I was not involved in the larger Japanese community where the language would have been necessary, therefore it was, speaking was non-functional for me. Reading I thought might be of interest, because there were Japanese language things around our house, for example, that I would look at and think "Gee, I can't read this stuff, but it would be interesting if I could." However, as you know, the Japanese language being in terms of characters is very difficult to learn to read and I never got a hang of it in those days and therefore I didn't succeed there.

So for eight years or more that I went to the Language School, I really went there just to be there in body and as far as learning went, there was not very much learning that went on. I would say that the Language School was, for at least the majority of the Nisei, a social event. We didn't learn very much at the Language School, but we were doing what our parents wanted us to do and so that we took care of that. Otherwise, we would play handball, we would play baseball, we would get together for social activities extramurally and that's why I got to know quite a number of my Japanese Nisei friends, at the Language School. The other thing about the Language School was that it was the organized entity through which many of the Japanese community activities were carried out. For one thing, the Language School itself had an outdoor event annually called the undoukai. Undou means exercise function. The undoukai was an outdoor activity in those days, often held at Jefferson Park area, where the parents would set up running events and all kinds of activities where there would be competition and then there would be prizes, virtually prizes for everybody. If nothing else you'd get a pencil and eraser and if you were very good at what you did, why you'd get maybe a package of some confectionery or something like that. Anyway, the undoukai was for us kids a very interesting event, because this was one of the picnic events that our family annually involved ourselves in. We would meet other families that we would, we knew whose kids were attending the Language School, and then we would have these competitive activities. It was a very festive and enjoyable affair. The only thing that I disliked about the undoukai was that it was held in a relatively public place, either the Jefferson Park area or occasionally it might be held in Lincoln Park, you know, on the Sound, down south of West Seattle, places like that. And what I disliked was that because it was public, people, the hakujin people could see us, not only assembled as an alien entity, but in addition to that, we emphasize the alienness by eating with chopsticks and so on, and that somehow to me seemed the wrong thing to do. Nevertheless, the undoukai was very exciting affair and so basically I enjoyed it.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.