<Begin Segment 18>

TL: At what point in your schooling did you begin to meet more Japanese Americans?

AT: Well, the Sacramento, the area where father had a house, was little away from Chinese or Japanese community, 'cause it was across the street from big park. I think he was renting this house, but it was really quite nice house. When I entered the school, I started first grade, I think. And I was thirteen years old, so I was there for like, two months, and I was learning to write ABC and all that. But I was good in math so they promoted me to fourth grade, sixth grade, and eighth grade and jumped and finished that in couple of years and then started Sacramento High School.

TL: So by the time you got to classes where you were closer in age to the other students, were there more Japanese Americans or were there still more Chinese and Mexican and Caucasian?

AT: Oh, mixed.

TL: Very mixed.

AT: Uh-huh. I was, I think I was about junior in high school the war broke out. So I never did finish high school. And then we were sent to temporary camp and then to Tule Lake, and then all the people in Tule Lake were talking about going back to Japan because this terrible war that America dropped the bomb and so we are not going to stay here. So most of us studied Japanese. Although, we did have high school. The Caucasian teacher came to camp and he was minister in Japan before the war. He came back to America shortly before the war so he was very sympathetic with Japanese children, and so... Mr. Pomeroy, I think. Yes. And I was in his high school class there for a couple of years.

TL: Thinking again about Sacramento, were both of your parents running separate businesses?

AT: No. It was my father's liquor business that mother went and she made it bigger and better. And then war broke out and then after the war our father started liquor business, but in smaller scale, so Mother started a jewelry business. That was after the war. I don't know why she wanted to have jewelry business, but she went to New York by herself, and to Fifth Avenue jeweler, and negotiated all kinds of things and started a jewelry business. There was sort of, right next to the liquor store. And then, course, she tackled restaurant business too. So, she was always on the go.

TL: Were you able to form any close friendships before evacuation?

AT: Church members, yes. Mother was going to Nichiren Church, so I did belong to Nichiren Youth Group, made some friends there. But the public school friends were not my same age so we were not very close.

TL: Did you find the Nichiren Church to be quite different from... well, or did you attend church when you were back in Japan?

AT: No. No. There is no such thing as Sunday School in Japan, unless you are a Christian, maybe. I don't know about Christianity in Japan.

TL: So what did you think about the church experience here in Sacramento?

AT: It was nice because they were... I find same age girls, and they had what they call Seinenkai -- Youth Group. And we had sort of a group doing things. Yes. And the Nichiren Church members were mostly from Okayama. Yes. I don't know why, but there were so many Okayama people belonging to Nichiren Church. Because in Japan I never heard of Nichiren.

TL: Did you feel fairly accepted by the church members or...

AT: Yes.

TL: Do you think a lot of it is because of the shared Okayama connection?

AT: Yes.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.