<Begin Segment 6>

BF: Do you, do you remember much of that period? I mean you were, you were so young when it happened.

TM: Well, during the camp I was only six to eight or eight and a half.

BF: Yeah.

TM: So I remember some, but I, most of it was because somebody told you that's what happened, so you think you remember. But I was pretty much of a loner. Statistically there, there weren't very many children born about the year I was born. I think it was kind of after the, after the Depression, so 1936. There may have been a few but there always seemed to be a few years younger or a few years older. Maybe that was just an unusual situation. So I was either playing with, myself, running around to different blocks or doing whatever. But I, the point is that I didn't have a set of friends, I don't think, in camp, that we were buddies with other than one or two. I think one of 'em was a little older but went back to Japan with the family, and so when I came out of camp, Tule Lake, and landed in Bailey Gatzert, walked into class -- first of all I was one year older, but there mighta been fifteen Japanese kids. But none of them came back out together from Tule. All the others, maybe ten out of them, came back out of Minidoka, so they knew each other, you know what I mean? Where I was just thrust into an environment -- they all looked familiar, but I didn't know them. So it was an unusual situation I guess.

BF: And Tule itself, most of the people in Seattle area went to Minidoka. Your family was in Tacoma so they went to Pinedale and then Tule.

TM: Right.

BF: And, you were mentioning that your father stayed there because he intended to go back to Japan, perhaps.

TM: Right.

BF: So in Tule, they did have more Japanese language instruction. More Japanese culture. Were you, did your parents encourage you to, to really immerse yourself in, in that?

TM: Well, I'm assuming my father enrolled us in both Japanese and English schools. So, which was, I don't know if all of Tule, but I'm sure that wasn't true in other camps. But, that mighta been true because he was at least signed up to go back to Japan. And I don't know if they had a list. I'm assuming they had a list. So they said, "Well, if you're going back, then at least your children should learn Japanese." So I remember, I can't remember if it was morning or afternoon, but half of the, our school was in Japanese. And our instructors were instructors from Hawaii. And I'm assuming that it's, the classes were held and discipline was held like Japan because I remember we had to clean the blackboard, and they were very strict. Where in the American, English school, it was kinda loosey-goosey. We thought we had a retired, nice Caucasian teacher that was just doing her thing. So, I'm gonna use this as an excuse, but I came out of there pretty confused. I didn't know what my primary language was, and English. So to this day my English is kinda, little rough. But conversely I have been able to converse and at least understand enough Japanese. So I guess you have to take both.

BF: Yeah, because a lot of, a lot of your peers struggle with Japanese and are less comfortable, and are obviously very Americanized, and feel very foreign in Japan. But you seem to be very comfortable in both worlds.

TM: Well, and it gets back, my father, he conversed with us primarily in Japanese, and he cussed a lot too, but that was English, but... and you thought it was unreasonable, but he probably was trying to make sure that we understand basic Japanese if we were gonna go back to Japan. And then, as we got into business, a lot of our customers, the Issei ladies that were our very important customers would speak to us in half Japanese, half English. But so you just picked up that language. In that way it was fortunate. And then when I went to Japan you just filled out what basic things you know. At first they say, "Well your Japanese is very good." Toward the end they start to correct me and they would laugh when I speak some very, very, very, old Japanese. It's been okay for me, I guess.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 1999 Densho. All Rights Reserved.