<Begin Segment 5>

TI: Okay, so we talked about your mother and father a little bit, and again, more details are in Kajiko Hashisaki's... so I want to actually spend more time about you growing up. And so talk about where you live, your first memories of where you lived.

MI: Well, I was really born on Washington Street, and then Sawa Beppu was the midwife. And then somehow or another, we moved to 421 Tenth Avenue, and then I had Kazuko Hirai, the Tadas and the Sekiyos as neighbors.

TI: Okay, so these were people... so let's first talk about the 421 Tenth Avenue. So this is like Tenth and Jefferson?

MI: Between Jefferson and Fir.

TI: And so this is, for people hearing this now, it's kind of like where the Seattle University...

MI: Well, right now, the house was, there was a big apartment house.

TI: Right, I think probably housing for...

MI: For Seattle U.

TI: For students at the university, Seattle University.

MI: And then we had the house right on Tenth Avenue, and behind us was the Sekiyas, and then next door was the Tadas, and next door was the Hirais.

TI: So lots of Japanese families.

MI: Oh, yeah. You know, like I played with Kazuko. And I was young.

TI: So describe the house. What did the house or home look like at 421?

MI: Well, there was a living room and dining room and the kitchen, and upstairs were the bedrooms.

TI: And how many bedrooms?

MI: Well, I know Ish and I and Hiroko and Kaji were in the same room. Maybe the boys were in the middle room and Dad and Mom were in the other room.

TI: Okay, so maybe three bedrooms.

MI: Must have been three bedrooms, yeah, with one bathroom.

TI: And growing up, did you have a sense that your dad was doing okay, to have that house?

MI: I remember, I mean, we were comfortable. We ate good and everything else for six of us.

TI: So tell me more about this neighborhood. Earlier...

MI: Well, I remember playing jintori, Kick the Can, things like that.

TI: So jintori is, you taught me, like we called Pole?

MI: Everybody used to get together and we used to play Kick the Can.

TI: Just these games?

MI: On the street. And I kind of remember, I think later on we finally got a car. And then with the car, we used to go beaches to have picnics and whatnot.

TI: Thinking about the neighborhood, you talked about the families that were really close by. What else was nearby your house?

MI: Well, Pacific school was one or two blocks down, and Bako went to Pacific school, I don't know why. But my mom and dad had him going to Pacific school. I think Hiroko must have gone to Maryknoll, I really don't know.

TI: So explain what Pacific school is. What is Pacific school?

MI: Oh, I don't know, some people said the dumb people went there.

TI: But this was the public...

MI: Public school.

TI: Public school.

MI: But Bako did well, he started UW when... I think he was up to sophomore or junior year at the University of Washington when the war broke out.

TI: Well, it's interesting. So do you think your family's perception of the public school, Pacific, was maybe the education wasn't that strong there?

MI: No, I don't know why, but my dad and mom didn't want Bako to go to the Catholic school. They wanted him to go to public school.

TI: But I was thinking why your parents wanted your older sisters, Hiroko, Kaji, and Irene, Ish, and you and Chuck to go to Maryknoll versus Pacific.

MI: That part there, I don't know the reasoning at all. But all my life I went to Maryknoll. I went from kindergarten to eighth grade.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.