<Begin Segment 11>

BY: And so talk about Bailey Gatzert at little bit. I know that a lot of Japanese American kids went there, so what was it like going to Bailey Gatzert?

MK: Oh, I was at home with them because there were a lot of my friends, they were my friends. And I don't remember the Caucasian classmates if we had any, but I remember we had one Black boy in our class. He was real nice, and the majority were Japanese and Chinese.

BY: Okay. And how about your teachers? Were they white or were they Japanese or Chinese?

MK: No, they were all white Americans, Caucasians.

BY: And how... what did you think? Did you like your teachers, did you like school, or what are your memories of school?

MK: Oh, it was fine, but they were strict and I know the last one we had in the beginning of the sixth grade, she was very firm and one of those that hit you with a ruler on your hand and stuff. And so everyone was scared of her. And one day I know she asked me to stay after class, and so everybody turned around and looked, and I thought, oh, gosh, did I write a note to somebody? And you know, she knew my parents owned the furniture store and that they were closing. She says, "Do you think your mother could give me a broom from her store for use in my garden?" I mean, here I was sweating it out after thinking, I wonder what I'm being held for. And it just left such an impression on me, and it was just that. So when I told my parents, they sent me to, back the following day with two brand new brooms from the other new store that sold the furniture.

BY: So this was, we'll get Pearl Harbor a little bit later, but this was after Pearl Harbor then, right before you were going to be...

MK: Yeah.

BY: Oh, interesting, very interesting.

MK: But that's the biggest impression that left on me, because I was so scared that I was really in trouble.

BY: In trouble, yeah. So you said that your father was involved with the Nichiren church. What do you remember about either church activities or other Japanese community activities? Do you remember picnics or activities like that?

MK: We always went to the church picnics and kenjinkai picnics, and they were all held at the Lincoln Park in West Seattle.

BY: So both of your parents were from Okayama-ken. Did they tend to hang out mostly with other Okayama-ken families or just everybody?

MK: No, they stuck pretty much... because a lot of them were members of the Nichiren church, too.

BY: So they kind of all stuck together?

MK: So we knew of them from way back. As family...

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