Densho Digital Archive - Kazuo Yamane Interview (denshovh-ykazuo-02-0001)

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LD: Your father sent you... can you tell me a little bit about your background here in Hawaii as far as Japanese language is concerned? My question is, how did you learn your Japanese language, and when did you start, tell me about Japanese language school and becoming a Kibei. When you went. "I learned my Japanese language..."

KY: I learned my Japanese language, actually, when I first went to Japan. When we were kids, our parents sort of forced us to go to language school, that is, what they wanted us to learn the language and culture of Japan. But being raised in the islands here with a lot of ethnic groups, and, of course, during those days, there was a strong anti-Japanese feeling, and the policies of the schools at that time were one language, English. And they discouraged the use of foreign languages. And one of the chief objections the government had was to stop any use and education of the Japanese language. In fact, I think the Japanese language school problem was fought for a long time until it went to, I think, the U.S. Supreme Court, where I think the Japanese language school advocates had won.

LD: How did you, as a young boy, feel about going to Japanese language school? I know you had to, you had to obey your father, but how did you feel about going to Japanese language school?

KY: Japanese language is not the language itself, because the Chinese schools were very, at that time, very flourishing. The Chinese kids used to go to Chinese school, Japanese kids used to go. But we used to go just for the sake of our parents, but actually, our heart wasn't in it. So we stayed an hour, and even in that hour we absorbed something, but we never got a good education in Japanese. Although they had other subjects, ethics and morals and so forth. That was a good guideline for us.

LD: What kind of ethics? What kind of things did you learn about in Japanese language school? What kinds of things did they teach you about ethics and morals?

KY: Oh, for instance...

LD: What did the teachers say to you?

KY: Well, the teachers are all teaching in ethics, were like respect of the elders, respect of your parents, filial piety and things like that. And I think that's what we need in schools today.

LD: You said your heart wasn't in it, you said most the kids' hearts wasn't in it. Why?

KY: Well, it was pretty tough for us because we'd go to English school about two or three o'clock in the afternoon, and after that, we have to go to language school 'til four or five o'clock, the other kids are playing. And the kids are, they want to go out and play, too. There were some good students who liked to study language, you know, but as far as we were concerned, boys, we liked to go out and play, so our hearts were never in it.

LD: Did you learn something just the same?

KY: Well, we learned something, I believe. But not enough that if we went to school in Japan, that we could have use of it because the standard was way below to what could be used in Japan.