<Begin Segment 5>

TI: Okay, let's go to school. So you mentioned Logan Elementary School earlier. What are some other schools that you attended?

YM: Which school?

TI: Yeah, what other schools did you attend?

YM: The first school I went to kindergarten was Lincoln Elementary. And then the second school after we moved was Logan, and the third place was Stockton Elementary. And from Stockton Elementary, we went on to Memorial junior high school, and then from there we went to San Diego High School.

TI: Now if people were to describe you as a student, how would they describe you?

YM: Mediocre. [Laughs]

TI: So were there certain classes that you enjoyed more like math or history?

YM: Yeah, I think math probably.

TI: And how about like extracurricular activities? Sports, hobbies or clubs at school?

YM: Well, in high school, I was in the ROTC. And we had a rifle club, and I didn't go out for sports other than that in high school. At church we had a Boy Scout troop, Troop 52, and we would do a lot of activities there and meet once a week, I think it was, at church, and have meetings. And then we'd go camping quite a bit, and hiking and so forth. Yeah, we had a good time.

TI: And so when you think back to those days, what are some of your fondest memories? You mentioned the hiking, the camping, what are some other fond memories that you have growing up in San Diego?

YM: Well, we used to go out fishing, surf fishing or deep sea fishing. We used to go out hunting. A friend and I, another friend and I would go out rabbit hunting, and that's about it, I guess. Horseback riding maybe.

TI: And so to go hunting, your family had guns?

YM: I was allowed to buy a .22. And so we'd go out rabbit hunting in the morning.

TI: And how did you learn how to handle a gun?

YM: Oh, I don't know. You just learn. It's not very difficult to learn to shoot. You have to be very careful. I remember once, I was doing something with my .22 rifle in my bedroom and I accidentally had a cartridge in there and it went off. And my sister, younger sister Michi was standing right here, and fortunately, I didn't hit her with it. The bullet struck the wall above her, you know. That was kind of a close call.

TI: Boy, did... I'm wondering what your parents did when that happened, or did they ever find out?

YM: I don't think they ever found out.

TI: That must have been pretty scary for you to just think about.

YM: Yeah, it was.

TI: You mentioned deep sea fishing. How would you go out? Was it like a friend's boat?

YM: Well, you could charter. You'd go out on one of these charter boats, and it takes you out beyond Point Loma, and there'd be a barge sitting there sometimes. You'd get off on the barge and they have bait and so forth, bait tank, and you just fish along with about a dozen other guys. It was fun.

TI: Now, in San Diego, as an example, up in the Northwest, there were certain things the Isseis did in Seattle like salmon fishing, they would do that a lot together. They'd go up in the mountains and look for matsutake mushrooms. In San Diego, were there similar type of things that the Isseis liked to do? Another example would be, a lot of the Isseis would go to Mount Rainier for big picnics. And I'm just curious, I'm trying to get a local flavor of San Diego, if there's some things that if you thought about the Isseis and the Niseis, what are some things that they...

YM: We didn't have matsutake, we didn't have those places. We didn't have the salmons, things like that, but we did catch, oh, small fish. A lot of mackerel. But other than that, I don't recall. We used to go to the farm, a lot of our friends were farmers. We used to spend a lot of time visiting the farms and coming back with a lot of farm vegetables. Sometimes we'd get together during New Year's to make mochi, you know, they'd have a big fire going outside to steam the rice and the men would pound the rice and make mochi. I remember those days.

TI: Okay, good.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright ©2009 Densho and the Twin Cities JACL. All Rights Reserved.