Densho Digital Archive
Bainbridge Island Japanese American Community Collection
Title: Taketo Omoto Interview
Narrator: Taketo Omoto
Interviewer: Frank Kitamoto
Location: Bainbridge Island, Washington
Date: October 22, 2006
Densho ID: denshovh-otaketo-01-0002

<Begin Segment 2>

FK: So, so growing up in that area, then, did you have a lot of Caucasian friends or did you... what did you do as far as growing up in that area?

TO: Yeah, we had a lot of Caucasian friends. But I remember we worked, we knew the Wing Point people. I remember this Johnson family we used to hang around with. I don't know why, but they wouldn't let him use that Wing Point dock. We were able to use that Wing Point dock. It was kind of a private... we went fishing there and everything, but, they kept everybody else off. So...

FK: Well, what was it like going to school on the island, then?

TO: We walked every day, rain or shine. It was quite a ways from where we lived. Oh, I don't know, three or four miles. But, they didn't have school buses then; later on we had school buses. We walked, walked part of the way, up to Amblin's corner there. From there we took a bus.

FK: So where, where was the grade school on the island that you went to?

TO: Oh, we went to Winslow High School. We used to, later on it was called Lincoln, I believe. We went to there through sixth grade.

FK: That's, that's where the Winslow Green is now, is that, is that right?

TO: Yes, I believe so.

FK: Okay. Then was the high school already built, then, at that time?

TO: Uh, no. There was a Winslow High School there, too, same time, they were different grades from first grade on up to high school upstairs. I remember the older boys there, they were that upper level. And the Antoncichs and, 'specially Antoncichs, they lived in Wing Point, and they owned a grocery store. Yeah, we knew those... I remember their boys, and John Nakata was there as an upper classman.

FK: And as far as socially or activities at schools, were there, were there any things that you participated in?

TO: No, I wasn't that type of a guy. [Laughs] Well, there was a few minor thing, but that's about it.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.