<Begin Segment 13>

Off camera: But I think that, I think you guys, one question is to go back to Clarksburg when you were, moved back there for your freshman year of high school. Moving from West Sacramento back to Clarksburg, did you feel...

HS: I went from Clarksburg to West Sacramento.

Off camera: And then back to West, then back to Clarksburg for your freshman year, right?

DG: Of high school.

HS: No, no. Oh yeah, I went my freshman year to high school, you're right.

Off camera: Right, right. What were your experiences there going to, going to school? I mean, you moved back and forth. Were people like, you were, did you feel like you were a Clarksburg person or a West Sacramento person? Were you kind of kept out of social circles a bit when you were in school? Do you know what I mean?

HS: It was such a small community, you still had your usual friends.

Off camera: You did. And what would you guys do socially, that freshman year in Clarksburg?

HS: Nothing much.

Off camera: So you didn't, you didn't go to the, there's Tom's Corner, things, something like this where you go to the fountain, or... you guys, you're pretty much going to school and working with your folks.

HS: Uh-huh.

Off camera: It sounds like you would have, like, a very full schedule in terms of not, not a lot of free time to do things on your own. Was that, do you feel like that was typical for kids like yourself growing up in Clarksburg?

HS: I think so. We weren't always working.

Off camera: What were you doing when you were not working?

HS: Well, since we were kids, we'd play around. [Laughs]

Off camera: Yeah. What did you enjoy doing? [HS leans in] What did you enjoy doing at that time?

HS: When I was a kid?

Off camera: Yeah.

HS: Just playing around with friends.

DG: Did you like to read?

HS: Yes.

JS: Did you swim?

HS: Pardon?

JS: Go swimming?

HS: I never did learn to swim. When I was, let's see, when I was doing domestic, had a swimming pool, and the first thing that happened when I jumped in was I sunk to the bottom. [Laughs] I don't know how people float.

DG: This was in Los Angeles? That was in L.A.?

HS: In L.A.

Off camera: So your parents didn't, when you went back to Clarksburg, they didn't want you going to the language school?

HS: Did I go back to language school after I came back to Clarksburg?

Off camera: Yeah, for freshman year.

HS: No.

Off camera: But a lot, probably a lot of your friends were going, right?

HS: Most likely.

Off camera: And what was that like? Was that, was there ever a question of why you, why weren't you coming along as well?

HS: Why, why wasn't...

Off camera: Why do you think your parents didn't want you going and other parents did want their kids going?

HS: To go to Japanese school?

Off camera: Yeah.

HS: It's not that they didn't want us to go. I don't think that, it was probably financial more than anything else.

DG: 'Cause you had to pay for the teacher, right?

HS: I'm sure, I'm sure they had, yeah. Teachers have to be paid. But I'm attending Japanese school now.

DG: You are? Where?

HS: Where? At the Asian Community Nursing Home -- or Asian Community Center.

DG: That's great.

Off camera: I've got something. Were there other kids like, I mean, how many other families were like you, that they weren't sending their kids to the language school even though --

HS: I'm not aware of that.

Off camera: You're not aware. And what, if you could've afforded it, would you have wanted to go?

HS: Not really.

Off camera: Yeah? Why not?

HS: Well, as a kid, you'd rather play instead of study. I hope I was normal then. [Laughs]

DG: Yeah, sounds like you were.

Off camera: Yeah, yeah, that's very normal.

DG: So there were some Japanese American teams in the area, boys' sports teams. Did your brother participate in any of those, or was that also a financial barrier?

HS: We just didn't have the time. Probably financial too, 'cause my father would probably have to take off work and bring him wherever.

DG: Yeah.

HS: We made up our own games.

JS: When we talked on the phone you said you were in Utah, in Los Angeles, and then you came home. So what do you claim as home?

HS: Clarksburg is home. When I left, I came back from Clarksburg, wasn't long after that that Kay Thompson called me back to work for her in New York, Boston and Rhode Island.

JS: So you must have fond memories of Clarksburg from your early days, because that's where you think of as home, even though you moved around.

HS: Yeah.

DG: What did your parents think of you leaving and going with this entertainer, traveling around?

HS: I really don't know, but I, it was, my mother had called me back home when Kay Thompson was, and the troupe were going to France and England, London, to perform. She didn't want me to travel, so I came home.

DG: Oh.

HS: I didn't want to go either.

DG: You didn't?

HS: No.

DG: How come?

HS: I think had enough of show business.

DG: [Laughs] What got tiresome for you?

HS: Pardon?

DG: What were you tired of?

HS: Show business?

DG: Yeah, what aspect?

HS: Well, I guess I missed home. I probably missed home more than anything else. But I, thankful that I had the experience, because I really met a lot of well noted, known people, well known people. Including George C. Marshall.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2012 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.