<Begin Segment 3>

SY: And so as you were growing up, where did you live?

AM: Well, actually, from, I have to, in sequence I can't name it, but I know we lived in Sawtelle for a while. My father worked at some nursery places. And we also worked on a nursery in Gardena area, and I went to Moneta Gakuen.

SY: And where was that?

AM: Pardon me?

SY: Where was that?

AM: That's right by Gardena.

SY: So it was a Japanese school in... and where there, so there were quite a few Japanese in that...

AM: Yeah. So when we moved back, moved to, when we were at Sawtelle, I remember the elementary school and the Japanese school there, but presently that elementary school is known as Nora Sterry, but I don't think it was that name when I went there.

SY: So there was a gakuen in the Sawtelle area.

AM: Yes.

SY: And that was the only one in that whole, that served that West L.A. area? Or were there others?

AM: Well, Santa Monica had their own Santa Monica Gakuen, but as far as I was concerned, Sawtelle was the only one. I was too young to know about outlying places.

SY: So did you learn Japanese there, or did you learn it at home?

AM: Probably both, I would say. Yes.

SY: Because your parents, were they bilingual or did they only speak Japanese at home?

AM: My mother spoke mostly Japanese. She spoke some Spanish. My father spoke both.

SY: And I'm sorry, I didn't get your mother's full name.

AM: She's Sasami.

SY: Sasami.

AM: Her maiden name was Takeda.

SY: And she was the only one from your family, from, I'm sorry, from her side of the family that was in the United States.

AM: Yeah.

SY: And she never was joined by any others in her family?

AM: No. Not to my knowledge.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright &copy; 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.