<Begin Segment 12>

TI: Let me talk about your family life. So when you think about your house, and you have seven children, so it's a big family. How many bedrooms and how did people sleep in that room?

WM: We had upstairs, two, two, two, they stayed. (Narr. note: There were four rooms upstairs. One room for Tosh, one for Yosh and David, one for Sho and Walt, and one for Rose.)

TI: And so how many rooms were up there? Four rooms?

WM: Stayed and my dad stayed.

TI: Okay, so two, two, two, and then that'd be eight upstairs and then one downstairs?

WM: Yeah.

TI: And so your father had a separate room.

WM: Yeah, downstairs.

TI: And then so your mother, who did your mother...

WM: She stayed in one place.

TI: With your father?

WM: Yeah.

TI: Okay, so downstairs, and then the bedroom was upstairs. And so describe kind of a typical day. Say it's a school day. When you wake up, talk, tell me what you did during the day. Like one, just like one day, just describe...

WM: I think we just get up and go to school.

TI: Like breakfast, did you have breakfast?

WM: Yeah.

TI: So describe what would be a typical breakfast? What kind of food would you have?

WM: American food.

TI: Which would be what? What would be...

WM: I forget. I went all over, so I forget now. Young.

TI: So when you say American breakfast, it would be, like...

WM: Bacon and egg or something, (homemade biscuits).

TI: Okay, bacon and eggs. And would you all eat together, all nine of you?

WM: Yes.

TI: And your mother would cook everything?

WM: Yeah.

TI: And then you would eat, and then you would then walk to school?

WM: It was close to our place. We got to eat fast because too many kids. If you didn't eat, all gone then. [Laughs]

TI: So big family, they put it on the table, you have to eat fast. And then when you go to school, about what time in the morning would you go to school?

WM: I forgot. Eight or nine, something.

TI: Okay, eight or nine.

WM: Something like that.

TI: And then you would go to classes. At lunchtime, where would you go? Would you go home or would you stay...

WM: I think we would go home, I think.

TI: And would that be common for the other students, too? Would they all go home?

WM: Yes.

TI: So you'd go home for lunch, and then you'd come back and you would go to school in the afternoon.

WM: Yeah, and then after that, you got to go Japanese school.

TI: And then how long a break did you have between regular school and Japanese school? Not too long?

WM: Not too long.

TI: So you pretty much just walked from one to the other? Would you get like a snack or something between schools?

WM: No.

TI: Then you would go to Japanese school for one hour, and then after that, what would you do?

WM: Play around.

TI: Play around. And then you would come home for dinner?

WM: Yeah.

TI: And then you'd have dinner, and what would be a typical dinner? What kind of food?

WM: Not bad, good food.

TI: American or Japanese?

WM: American. Some Japanese.

TI: So American, sometimes Japanese, and then after dinner, what would you do?

WM: Homework, school.

TI: Okay, so you were probably a good student. You did homework. [Laughs] And then how long of homework do you think...

WM: Not too (long).

TI: Okay, so a little bit of homework, and then when you're all finished with your homework, what would you do?

WM: Go to sleep.

TI: Go to sleep. How about things like a bath? Did you take a bath?

WM: Yeah, we got Japanese bath.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright (c) 2009 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.