<Begin Segment 12>

MN: How about your trip back to Los Angeles? Did you get seasick again?

KM: I can't remember, but I know I was seasick going, so I must have been seasick coming back.

MN: Did the ship land in San Pedro?

KM: Probably.

MN: Who was there to pick you up?

KM: My dad.

MN: Now let me go back to asking you about your regular school. Which junior high school did you attend?

KM: The name of the school was Roosevelt junior high school.

MN: And what was the ethnic makeup of Roosevelt?

KM: Oh, it's about the same as the grammar school, probably over ninety percent white and a small percentage of Mexicans and Orientals.

MN: And how were you treated here?

KM: I mean, I didn't have any problems. Like I say, socially, never mixed with... see, socially mixing with say the girls, we didn't do any of that. 'Cause I don't know, just one of those things, I guess. Fellows, socially I mixed with them at the school very good, but you talk about birthday parties or something like that, even the fellows' family, were never invited.

MN: Now when you were growing up, what kind of lunches did you bring to school?

KM: I used to make my own lunch because my mother was always working, so we had to learn how to make our own lunches to take to school. So predominately, I can always remember that I made sandwiches. None of this musubi stuff that most of the kids there talk about prewar days, taking sushi or musubis to school. Not me. I made my sandwiches, bought some ham and lettuce and mayonnaise and put 'em in the, between two slices of bread, and that was my lunch. And then maybe have a fruit or something that, and then brown bag it to school.

MN: Did you eat in the school cafeteria?

KM: I don't recall ever eating in the school cafeteria. I don't know why, but I always thought that that was for the rich people. [Laughs]

MN: Now from Roosevelt junior high school, which high school did you go to?

KM: I went to Glendale junior high school in Glendale.

MN: And was the ethnic makeup about the same?

KM: Yeah, because of the bigger enrollment, but it was ninety-some-odd percent, I'd say, white, and then a few percentage of Mexicans and Asians. But no blacks. I don't know... Glendale was very discriminatory. I remember they had a law that something, wasn't a law, but the police would escort colored domestic workers if it became a little dark, would make 'em get in the patrol wagon and they'd escort 'em out to the city limits to catch the bus home. So they're really very discriminatory city.

MN: So you're saying that Glendale, after dark, there was supposed to be no African Americans?

KM: That's right. No African Americans after dark. So you wouldn't have anybody living there. That's why I didn't say anything about percentage of negroes in the high school or the junior high school.

MN: Did you yourself have any negative experiences with the Glendale police?

KM: No. They were all civil, but that's why I never had run into any kind of discrimination that obviously really hit me.

MN: Now in high school, how did you do academically?

KM: Well, I was, I didn't get all As and Bs, that's for sure. But I guess I was above average, a little bit. But so I went from high school, instead of college, I went to a junior college in Glendale.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.