<Begin Segment 10>

TI: I wanted to go back, you mentioned how you went to a brand new high school, Campbell High School. I wanted to ask about that, going, what was it like as a brand new school?

LH: Well, Campbell grammar school I was impressed with because when we took cooking -- and it was, every (girl) was required to take sewing and cooking in the eighth grade -- but Campbell grammar school had a beautiful kitchen; it was all stainless steel. And the sewing room was immaculate and it was a big room, and when we went to the high school it was probably comparable, but because the grammar, I was so impressed with the grammar school, the high school was just, but it was the new building... and I don't remember too much about the classes I took as much as -- isn't that odd? -- but I was probably fourteen or fifteen, we used to eat in the front, facing Campbell Avenue and, and along the wall there there was a sitting place and the door is here. The guys would sit over there and eat and the girls are over here. We never talked to each other. In those days we just did not hardly communicate. Maybe we said hello, but we never, there was no interaction between the men and women. It's so different from now. [Laughs]

TI: How about the student body? You talk about Alviso was mostly Japanese. When you go here, how many Japanese are at Campbell?

LH: I don't think there was any, I don't remember anybody involved in student body things. There was a Japanese club.

TI: Well, not student body, maybe just the, the classes, just your classmates. What percentage would you say were Japanese?

LH: Not too many. Not too many, uh-uh. No. There was a Japanese club because there was a lot, but because it's a high school and here in the valley they used to be called Union High Schools because Campbell Union covered Willow Glen and all the way up to where the Santa Clara Union bus picked up and then the Los Gatos was a Union high school, so between Campbell, Los Gatos, Santa Clara they had their own area where they picked up the students so that they'd cover everybody, and San Jose High probably had people from Barryessa and North.

SF: What'd you do in the Japanese club?

LH: Mr. York was our teacher, and I don't know, we just got together. I don't remember doing any really activities or anything because... you know, it's strange, we, I don't remember any parties. We probably had meetings and the yearbook picture. That's about all I remember. So it must've been, I mean, I don't remember anything where anything unusual happened. But (in the Japanese American community) we did have basketball teams, so Campbell, the girls, Campbell had a basketball team, San Jose had theirs and then there was Fremont, it wasn't called Fremont, was Washington High School, I think. They had got a girls team and we used to compete in basketball games.

TI: As, I'm sorry, as a Japan club, or as a school team?

LH: No, they, we were all Japanese. From Mountain View, Campbell...

TI: You had formed basketball teams.

LH: Uh-huh. And we'd play at the Buddhist gym or we'd go to, I don't remember where we went in Fremont, Washington High School, probably Mountain View. I don't remember. But I wasn't too much into basketball. I guess I... I was in there for a while, but that was it. But there was, and then the boys had their, all their basketball teams, too, the Zebras and the Nittos, so they didn't, they weren't like us, from districts. If they played basketball they played either for the Zebras or the Nittos, as far as I can...

TI: Now, during this time did you continue going to Japanese language school?

LH: When I was going to high school we went to the Horio residence on, near Almaden Avenue and... Plumber? Somewhere out there. Hillsdale, I think. The Horio residence, it's not the residence, it was part of the barn. They fixed it into a room for Japanese school, so what we did was we took the bus that went over to the, that way and, and we went to Japanese school, or I did, and Mr. Tanimoto lived in San Jose, so he would take me home. He'd drop me off on Meridian and I'd walk home from there. So I did go to Japanese school until, I guess until the war started. I went, but my brother didn't have to go. I don't know why. Isn't that odd?

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.