<Begin Segment 9>

DG: So what was your impression of Japan in general?

GF: In general? Well, I thought, "What a dinky place, small place." I wanted to go back. I wanted to go back, but my father says, "No." He says, "You stay and go through school here. It's very important."

DG: So how many of you stayed?

GF: All of us stayed, all four of us. My youngest brother Paul, he was the youngest, he was in the... first grade. And then Roy, he was... my sister and myself. I went into the sixth grade, but I stayed in the sixth grade a year and a half because I don't know Japanese language that well. My sister knew a little bit because --

DG: So you were in Astoria where they didn't have a language school?

GF: Nothing like that. We just learned our language through our parents. And so at home we just spoke Japanese and that's what happened. That's the reason why when I went into the first grade, I was lost. I didn't know anything.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.