<Begin Segment 10>

TL: I'm wondering about the kinds of friendships that you formed while a schoolgirl. And, what kind of, what you remember about those times.

AT: I left Japan when I was still in sixth grade. So after I came back to America, to Sacramento, I think children didn't know how to address letter so we did not correspond very much. And I went back to Japan after I married George -- for one of George's fountain installation in Japan -- I went back to Okayama. But they had married and went away, and I couldn't find them any more. I didn't look for them. I asked about them and, says, "Oh, so and so is married and went to such place," so I didn't look for them. And I didn't have that much time either, 'cause I was traveling with George.

TL: When you were in school, were there any opportunities to visit some of the other villages or nearby cities, or was this a pretty isolated place?

AT: No. Soja was one of the big city in Okayama. And since I was quite an athlete -- I was running, I was jumping, and I was swimming -- and so I went to other schools to compete. So I was pretty popular there because of that, and I was a little bigger than average girls.

TL: So you had a chance to actually see a little bit more.

AT: Uh-huh.

TL: Did your aunt approve of these activities?

AT: I think so. She was maybe proud of that. Actually I was quite a bit bigger than my classmate. Sometimes I tried not to be so big, and I was always like this, slumped, so I had a bad habit of getting bad posture. So I had to be careful about that.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.