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TL: What about some of your memories of going to school? What kind of a school, was it a, the one-room school or several buildings?

HN: No. It was a brick school. They, from first to eighth grade, Lincoln School. And we used to walk to school, which was about, gee, about six, seven blocks away. So it wasn't that far. I think we had fun kind of walking to school. There was quite a few of us that used to walk to school.

TL: A lot of children the same age?

HN: Uh-huh.

TL: And all of -- these are the families that worked and lived in this little Japantown?

HN: Close by, uh-huh.

TL: What about the other students at the school? Did they come on buses from other parts of Spokane?

HN: I don't think so. I think most of them walked to school. But I remember we started from 1B and then we went to 1A. Instead of the whole year in the same class, we kind of changed after half a year. I started in 1B, and then they thought I, I was, I read too good so they put me in 1A. That's how I became in the same class as Molly Suzuki, and then there was a George Saiki and Kozo Nishifu. There were four of us that were Japanese. Rest were Caucasians.

TL: So you were actually kind of younger, but your skills were very good, so they put you ahead?

HN: Just a half a year younger.

TL: Now, were you, was your older sister also a good student, and so did you kind of learn from her?

HN: Uh-huh. She's two years older. And then at the restaurant we had an American waitress, and she kind of helped us with our homework and everything 'cause our parents couldn't speak English that well. But they had to know English since they were, had that restaurant.

TL: So was reading one of your favorite subjects, or were there other --

HN: Yeah. I think I liked math and reading and geography because the geography teacher was very nice.

TL: How about Japanese language school? Did you and your friends and your sister go to...

HN: Uh-huh. Right after school we had to walk to the Grant Street Church. And there we learned Japanese every day. And I had, Mrs. Suzuki was our school teacher.

TL: Was it a mixed-level class, so that the young children and the older children...

HN: Older, different...

TL: ...were all together, or were there separate classes?

HN: Yeah there were separate classes. And Reverend Goto kind of taught the older children. So we had to walk to the church. And from there we went home. So by the time we got home it was, must have been about 4 or 5 o'clock.

TL: Was the church located in the Japantown or a little bit separate?

HN: It was separate. It was on Grant Street, which is, oh, the east? I think the, east of Japantown.

TL: What about what you were studying in the Japanese language class? Was is it mostly the reading and the writing, or did you do other, other activities?

HN: I think it's mostly reading and writing. But I don't know if we really learned anything. [Laughs]

TL: Well, after -- this is jumping ahead, but when you did go to Japan, did you feel like those classes had helped you somewhat, or did you just feel a little bit lost because in Japan people would speak quickly or --

HN: I think it -- we were learning the katakana in the Japanese school, so that helped. The hiragana too. But the kanji, which is harder, I don't think we learned too much kanjis when we were here. But it helped. I'm sure it helped us a little bit.

TL: Since you went every day, was there still a lot of homework from the Japanese language class, or did you do it, do all the practicing right there in class?

HN: I think we had homework, and we took it home and did homework. And the English school, too -- well, we didn't have that much homework those days. But we had to do reading and arithmetic, and probably history and geography. It was a lot of memorizing.

TL: In Japanese school did they also teach history or about Japanese culture, too, or did you learn about Japan maybe from your parents and maybe the church activities?

HN: Gee, I can't remember if they taught us -- I know at church activities they used to have these Japanese movies once in a while. They, I think they came from Seattle, and they showed to it to the people in Spokane. And so we used to all go watch the movies. I don't think we understood anything, but we had fun getting together with everybody.

TL: I wonder what the movies would have been about. I don't suppose you remember?

HN: I think, we were kids, we liked the fighting. We used to call it chanbara, when the, with the swords.

TL: So very exciting, huh?

HN: Yes.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 1999 Densho. All Rights Reserved.