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BK: We'll get back to that, but as you're growing up, then, you had said that most of your close friends were really the Japanese Americans in the International District?

SU: Yes.

BK: And that it was -- your close friends really were not a mixed group of, ethnically mixed from school or that kind of thing, but mostly Japanese Americans. Because of that, what kinds of things did the community provide for you youngsters as you're growing up?

SU: Well, for instance, I went to Bailey Gatzert School when it, opened, a brand-new school for us. And we were so happy. And we had a wonderful principal named Ada J. Mahon. Her first priority was that we become good American citizens. She wanted us to, so every, every so often we'd have these assemblies where we'd have flag salutes and all that. But she was a wonderful teach -- principal. And all the teachers there, too -- because when, I remember when I first went to school I couldn't speak a word of English. See, we were brought up in a Japanese home where my mother, my mother especially, she lived here over fifty years, and she never did learn English. But my father had to learn English because of his business. But my mother never did. So here I went to school, no older sis -- brothers or sisters to help us in the English language, and yet we got by. So we must have had very dedicated teachers who looked after us. I was able to skip two grades and go into high school earlier than most of my friends. So that, that meant that the teachers really helped us. And the Japanese community -- as I said, I was born in a house right near, around the corner from the church and Nippon Kan. Nippon Kan Hall was where the Japanese all gathered for entertainment. And my mother, that was her only form of leisure and all that. So every Saturday night she would drag us all, because various organizations in the community would have their shibai or their odori or --

BK: A shibai is a play?

SU: Classical drama. Amateurs, of course, all the people, but we enjoyed watching. And then there were church organizations, Boy Scout groups, Buddhists had the Lotus group, where they had fundraisers by having entertainments, talent shows like that. Oh, my, we really...

BK: Did you participate in like the odori, which is the dance, Japanese --

SU: No.

BK: Japanese classical dance?

SU: I never went to classes like that. And, but Japanese Language School had a program every year. And we had to practice for that. So for that, I was on the stage. And then we had what we call a Girls' Club, a social group. And we had entertainment. Most of the organizations had entertainment, for which they prepared for a whole year, and then we presented them. I don't know how we were. But I must have had a very wonderful set of parents, because for instance, in order to appear in this one entertainment that I remember, at Nippon Kan, the girls all had to wear black, short coats. And we had to go buy it. My -- mothers couldn't make those things. We had to all have a set. We had big, white chrysanthemum pompons here, and came -- kind of like the Rockettes on the stage. [Laughs] But anyway, it was really a lot of fun, clean fun, where we could meet our friends, and also be entertained by them. And that's, I think we were very fortunate our whole life, although we were centered in Japantown, our, at Bailey Gatzert School, I remember just a few Chinese, no black person, no Filipino. We were all Japanese. So I think we ruled the school, really. And so all of our life we never felt any discrimination. We would go to school together with friends, leave the school with friends, but they're all Japanese. We walked two blocks down from Bailey Gatzert School and go to the Japanese Language School for another one hour and a half. And so we were studying, studying all the time. No chance to get into mischief.

BK: Right. Right.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.