<Begin Segment 18>

DG: So what gave you the idea that you could teach?

AM: Teach? Sunday school. All years.

DG: So where was that?

MM: Seattle.

AM: Presbyterian Church, in Seattle, Washington.

DG: So, how many years did you teach?

AM: From the junior class to the adult class.

DG: So, did you ever think of going into teaching?

AM: What?

DG: Did you ever think of going into teaching?

AM: No, I didn't, because we had the store and I was helping Dad.

DG: Let's get back to your classroom. Tell me a little bit about your class.

AM: My thoughts about teaching?

MM: We had good kids.

DG: The class itself.

MM: We had good kids.

DG: Think about camp and the class that you taught.

AM: My class, the fourth grade class. They're wonderful.

DG: Tell me what you did.

AM: In Idaho, you have to do a little farming. Plant sunflower seeds, and then plant tomatoes and things like that. And something they do at a farm. That's what we did.

MM: Nappa nanka tsukemono shitan desho..

AM: Then we had to grow some...

MM: Turnips, nanka...

AM: Turnips. So after we got the turnips, I made sunomono.

MM: Sunomono and tsukemono.

AM: And (...) I told our class, you go into your class...

MM: The mess hall.

AM: The mess hall and get our...

MM: Rice.

AM: Rice and then get a pair of chopstick and come to school. So I made sunomono and we all had the sunomono.

MM: Onigiri, too.

AM: And onigiri.

MM: And the kids loved it.

DG: So did the kids make the onigiri?

MM: Yeah.

AM: Umm.

MM: They had, some of them.

DG: How did you think up these things?

AM: Huh?

DG: How did you think of what unique...

AM: Well, when you try and utilize what we had on hand...

DG: Why did you want the kids to do this?

AM: What?

DG: Why did you want...

MM: Why did you want the kids to do it?

AM: I think you learn something from it.

DG: What?

AM: Learn how, what things are made. Fruits of the labor. That you work hard and you get something in return. And we (planted) the pot with the sunflower seeds. Then we (...) wiped them, we dried up the seeds and then we had the class (count how many seeds there were) and do some arithmetic. (And) dividing the class in group and then (finding) out how many sunflower seeds you got out of the whole stalk. And then (...) I had them write to a classmate. (...) The superintendent (and) the principal told me to write an article on my schoolwork, so I wrote on schoolwork and (...) she was so tickled pink, she says, "That paper was accepted by the state paper."

DG: Ooh, what did you say?

AM: And I said, "Oh, is that so?" [Laughs]

DG: Tell me what you said.

AM: Well, I said that we planted the seeds and then counted it. We nurtured it during the summer and all that and... fruits of the labor. Making some food out of it and enjoying it. And the state paper accepted the...

MM: It was a national paper.

AM: ...article. And then the superintendent and the principal were tickled pink. That they put Idaho on the map. So I used to do a lot of article writing for the, ano, principal.

DG: You had a word of the week.

AM: Pardon me?

DG: You had a word of the week.

MM: What sort of...?

DG: What were some of the words?

MM: Think of it.

AM: What, nani?

DG: Like responsibility?

MM: Yeah, to teach the kids, nanka. Responsibility's one.

AM: We all had to share in it. Uh-huh.

MM: What else did you say? With... honesty?

AM: Doing a lot of addition, dividing, I think it's -- we worked together as a whole, everything.

DG: What did you think was going to happen to these children?

AM: You know what? Every day I had the feeling that someday they (were) going to (get) out of the camp, they must be ready, be suited to get into the world again. So that's what I was very anxious, that they got all the knowledge they could while I was teaching them.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.