<Begin Segment 3>

FK: What do you remember about going to school on the island?

NK: Well, I went to Winslow grade school, started kindergarten down that way, then went to Winslow down in the village. You know where the Winslow is now?

FK: The Village Green is.

NK: There used to be a school there. And then Bainbridge High School. But yeah, I graduated from sixth grade and moved up to the high school, I think, when I was in sixth grade.

FK: So the high school was from seventh grade up, is that right?

NK: It may have been. I don't know if it was from six up or from seven up. It was right in there somewhere.

FK: So what kind of things did you do in high school?

NK: What kind of things did I do?

FK: Yeah.

NK: Study. [Laughs] Studied and played football. Yeah, I played quarterback on the high school team there, a couple years.

FK: So were most of your friends Japanese, or did you have hakujin friends, too?

NK: Oh, yeah. People were friendly.

FK: Did you have to go to Japanese school?

NK: Yeah, we'd walk down from the, after we finished school, and then we'd walk down to, we used to call it Tip School. I don't know why it got that, the word, but they called it Tip School. Went there for, I think they had about five, six years when I went there.

FK: So did you go after high school then?

NK: No, just 'til I was... oh, after school?

FK: Yeah, after school. That's when you went.

NK: Get out of school and then walk down to the Japanese school. It was just a short... well, it didn't seem like a very long walk.

FK: Where was it held?

NK: Japanese Hall. You know where that is?

FK: I remember where that was, yeah. Tell me where it was.

NK: Pardon?

FK: Tell me where the Japanese Hall was.

NK: I think it was on Grow Avenue about halfway down from... what's that street that goes east and west?

FK: Wyatt Way?

NK: Oh, Wyatt Way, yeah.

FK: What do you remember about the Japanese Hall? Do you remember when they built it?

NK: Yeah, I think I remember it being built, in fact. Although maybe it was standing already, I don't know. I know we used to play a lot of basketball in there, and they used to go to meetings and stuff. It was a meeting place.

FK: Who taught the Japanese classes?

NK: The teacher was Mrs. Ohtaki. Do you remember that name, Ohtaki? Yeah, we used to go down there and learn how to write our name in Japanese, learn how to read the easy part, the easy way. They had the complicated words, and they had this thing called katakana which was like spelling out A-B-C, like.

FK: How did you feel about going to the classes?

NK: Going to where?

FK: How did you feel about having to go to the classes?

NK: Going to classes?

FK: For the Japanese school.

NK: Oh, it was all right. We used to go down there and play baseball. Just before classes start, we'd all be out there playing baseball. And then if it was raining, we'd play basketball in the gym there. And the classes were held in the little room on the east side of the basketball court.

FK: So graduated in what class? Class of what year?

NK: High school?

FK: Yeah.

NK: Must have been somewhere in... '38, I think.

FK: '38?

NK: '38, uh-huh.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2007 Densho. All Rights Reserved.