Densho Digital Archive - Mas Hashimoto Interview (denshovh-hmas-01-0012)

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TI: Okay, so now I'm going to switch gears, and now talk a little bit more about, about your life and your memories. And so let's, let's again stay prewar right now. What are some of your earliest memories of Watsonville?

MH: Well, I remember, I was a cute kid. [Laughs] My mother always said I was the lucky one, and I, and I think she was right. I never really got into trouble, I didn't want to embarrass the family. But I remember kindergarten and first grade, teachers were always nice to all of us, so we're fortunate in that. I remember on December 7th playing Shazam!, Captain Marvel, with my friend Tony Hernandez. We were both six years old, we were both small, teeny guys, smallest in the class. And my brothers always looked out after me. Noriyuki, his job, he was brother number five, he was, his job was to look out after me. See, when my father died, the business folded. And so my mother has to raise the kids. How do you do this? Well, we decided to go into farming. So we were farming onions and garlic near La Selva Beach with the Matsuoka family. And we couldn't afford a tractor so we had this big draft horse, plow horse that we would rent and such. We were not particularly successful as, as farmers. [Laughs] But my, so my mom is, after the war, she's going to become a farm worker. But my memories coincides, my growing up memories really coincides with camp.

TI: But talk about kindergarten, first grade, because that was before camp, wasn't it?

MH: Right.

TI: What, so what school did you go to?

MH: It was Linscott School, and it's still in operation, it's only a block away from here. Minority children went to that school.

TI: When you say minority, was there segregation in...

MH: No, not in the town of Watsonville. There was segregated schools... there's Watsonville, and then there are all these small elementary school districts that fed into the high school. The high school had one big district. So they had segregated schools in the elementary areas. So Amesti Road area, the people who lived in that area, the Japanese Americans, were in a segregated school. They had a small community building, and, which was close to Amesti School. But a teacher was provided, Caucasian teacher, and then the Japanese American students had to go to the Japanese building for their schooling. And it was one, one room from kindergarten to eighth grade. And it must have been really difficult for that teacher. But the Shikuma brothers and Mrs. Yamashita, they went to that school, and they're still alive.

TI: I'd love to talk to them about that, that'd be interesting.