Densho Digital Archive - Bill Hirabayashi Interview (denshovh-hbill

<Begin Segment 6>

MA: And did you attend Japanese language school?

BH: Did I what?

MA: Did you attend Japanese language school?

BH: Yes, for just a couple of years. I'm ashamed to say that that was about it.

MA: And how did you, how did you enjoy it?

BH: I... gee, I don't dare say that, but is there something off the record I could tell you? [Laughs] But anyway, I stopped after we learned hiragana... no, katakana was the easiest one. They were just going to learn the hiragana when I quit. Let's put it that way, I quit. [Laughs]

MA: And what language did you speak at home with your parents?

BH: It was mostly English with the siblings. And then with the parents, they got a mixture of English and Japanese that way. This is why, like my dad was fairly fluent in English because he did his business and everything. And so this is why, when I told you he spelled the word U-S-E-F-U-L, that kind of a thing. He was well-versed 'cause he did a lot of reading. He was more of a scholar than he was a farmer in a lot of ways.

MA: And your mother also spoke some English?

BH: Yeah, uh-huh. She did the same. In fact, she even went to, I think Mat Iseri had a, he was the president of the PTA, Japanese PTA there, and they had little classes for the Japanese Isseis to learn English. And my mother went to school with Gordon's mother and different people. And just how much they learned, I don't know, because... but they took their classes so that they could better themselves. It's credit to the Isseis, 'cause they all wanted to naturally -- to them, it was an adopted country. It wasn't a case where they wanted to go back to Japan or anything like that. 'Cause they had all their kids here and everything, and this was their country. That's why it hurt so much that they couldn't become a citizen until after the war. And like when the evacuation came, I thought that, being a citizen and of age, that I could finish harvesting the farm. But there was no such thing, because everybody had to leave, as you know.