<Begin Segment 11>

TI: Okay, so coming back to Seattle, you mentioned going to Maryknoll since kindergarten. Now, how was Maryknoll different than, you talked about Pacific.

MI: Well, see, that part I don't know, because I just went to Maryknoll.

TI: Well, I mean, just basic things in terms of Maryknoll, in addition to your regular schooling, you've mentioned things like Japanese language. So talk about that. So at Maryknoll, which is a daily school, Monday through Friday, you would have your normal schooling. But you also mentioned they had Japanese classes?

MI: Yeah. I would say there were about twenty-something kids in each class, and then we had an hour of Japanese. I think that's the reason why a lot of these families sent them to Maryknoll, then they didn't have to worry about taking care of them during the public schools, and then sending them to Tip School. And as long as Maryknoll would pick up the kids for school and then give them the English education as well as Japanese, one hour Japanese, and then bring them back home to them. They had two buses to take care of that.

TI: So it was a really convenient situation for...

MI: For the Isseis. They didn't have to worry about sending the kids to Tip School or anything.

TI: So you mentioned twenty-something kids per class, how many of those were Japanese?

MI: They were all just about Japanese. Maryknoll was a missionary school. And later on we had Filipinos. In fact, I had one girl in my class, Sally Padilla, and then other than that, we were all Japanese.

TI: Yeah, I interviewed Bob Santos, he went to Maryknoll, too. He was a little younger than you.

MI: Was he? Bob Sato?

TI: Bob Santos.

MI: Yeah, see, I didn't know... the younger ones, I wouldn't know. I remember the Laigos and Anita Vilihar and people like that. Because we were all, in the bus, that you get to know each other more when you go to school.

TI: So they, so the Catholic church made it really convenient in terms of the schooling, the Japanese.

MI: And then they picked him up for Sunday school again, I mean, Sunday mass and whatnot.

TI: So in addition to Japanese school and regular, kind of, English topics, how about the religion side?

MI: We always had catechism.

TI: And that was almost like daily also?

MI: Yeah. Because the nuns were the teachers. And when I think about it, they were real good teachers. Because when I went to Broadway for freshman class, I could keep up with them, the public schools. In fact, I knew more than they did in some cases.

TI: So your training, your...

MI: Yeah, I mean, Maryknoll was a good school.

TI: So how about expense? This is a private school, was it expensive?

MI: That part I don't know. I know they paid tuition. I mean, every Catholic school you paid tuition.

TI: So when you think back, did the Japanese families that sent their kids to Maryknoll, did they tend to have more money? Like did they have their own homes and places like that?

MI: Well, I mean, it couldn't have been that high that they could send the kids to Maryknoll. Because you had a big enough congregation... when you have two buses to take care of the transportation and whatnot, the school has to have quite a bit of attendance to keep it going.

TI: So you're saying because they had such a large number of students, that there was pretty much a variety.

MI: Yeah. And that's one of the reasons why Maryknoll had to close. Most of the congregation, they didn't come back to Seattle.

TI: Right, after the war. We'll get to that. Did Maryknoll do things like fundraisers? Do you remember fundraisers?

MI: Oh, yeah, we used to have bazaars and whatnot, and that's where my mom was always the sushi maker.

TI: Oh, so tell me about these bazaars. So what would a bazaar look like?

MI: Well, I guess that part, I don't...

TI: Was it at school, like in the gym or someplace like that?

MI: Well, see, Maryknoll... the church was upstairs, and right below that was a hall. And that's where when you have bazaars, or plays, or graduation ceremonies, you had this big hall, and that's where we had the bazaar. And then the other side were just classes, schoolrooms. We had kindergarten, second grade, third and fourth was together, fifth and sixth were together, seventh was a separate class, and eighth was a separate class. That's all the school I know of.

TI: And it sounds like, in our talking about Maryknoll, in the same way you talk about, almost like the Kagoshima-ken, the Maryknoll group was almost its own community. It was pretty tight.

MI: It was a cliquish bunch.

TI: So describe it. So who were some of the families that were in the Maryknoll?

MI: Well, if you see...

TI: Yeah, I'll share this. So my mom has this photo album of the Maryknolls, and there's just tons of pictures that we're going to be scanning. And so it's like a whole community.

MI: Well, this is our graduation picture. We were the graduates, and in back is the alumni. So you could see how many...

TI: So when you say graduating class...

MI: That was the class of 1941. And then a big graduation ceremony in the hall. It was the first time we ever had to have the same long dress, the girls.

TI: Oh, so this is your eighth grade graduation.

MI: Eighth grade graduation. And then so the alumni was there to greet us into the alumni.

TI: Okay. And so there was, I see about...

MI: I don't know if I could recognize all the people, but a lot of them passed away that I really can't...

TI: Yeah, it's kind of hard to see.

MI: I can't see.

TI: That's okay, we won't do that.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.