<Begin Segment 11>

EG: When you were very young, in your family, Japanese was your language?

PT: Yes, it was.

EG: Did you forget it or lose it. You were saying when you went to Tule Lake, the Japanese school, you were learning the language.

PT: Well, actually when we were attending grade school in Seattle, after school was over we would attend a Japanese language school. But I had only completed perhaps grade one when we entered camp. You know, the formal training. And, of course, the training at Japanese school was only in the language itself. But, I needed more education than just the first grade education, to go to Japan and function there. So I started from about the second grade level, I believe, in Tule Lake. And I was able to progress up to the sixth grade.

EG: Partly, of course, because you had some basic familiarity with Japanese from childhood.

PT: Yes.

EG: You weren't starting from zero.

PT: Oh no. No, I wasn't. I wasn't. And, of course, I spoke Japanese with my mother all the time. And I somehow loved the language, so I think I applied myself when I was attending school there. So I would say that was one of the advantages that I had, when I did go to Tule Lake.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.