<Begin Segment 10>

TI: You know, so going back to Japan, so you talked a little bit about the language, and starting back with Book 1 and you're getting a tutor to help you, what are some other examples of you adapting to the culture? What else did you have to learn how to do?

IS: Well, I must have gone in very smoothly, because my Japanese parents, my mother especially mentioned this, that they were very much concerned about my, what I would eat. And I had lot of dislike when I was growing up at home. I remember not eating, not wanting to eat certain things, and telling my mother, "I don't like that." But I guess I enryoed a lot, because as a guest, you don't say, "I can't eat that." And I guess I acted that way, because I ate everything. And I remember soon after I arrived, she said, "Boy, that was one thing we were really concerned about, what are we gonna feed him here in the country?" And I ate everything. And I guess I did, because I sort of enryoed.

TI: And how about, like, school? How was it adapting to school?

IS: Oh, then I, mainly I studied, I arrived in July, I think it was July in '39, and I stayed at Yamanashi in the country 'til the end of the year. Then when the New Year started, they decided that I would try to get into this high school, they call it chugakkou, in Japan in Tokyo. And it was a Buddhist school. They had made arrangement, so right after New Year, they sent me to Tokyo. And I was going to go to the vice-principal's home, they arranged it so I was going to live there. But that family had just adopted a girl, so they said it's not a family, so it would be hard if I moved in there. So they asked his assistant teacher, who was also a Buddhist priest, but he was, he taught Japanese language, that was his subject that he taught at that same chugakkou. And his name was Hashimoto-sensei. I was put there, and he was a good teacher. And he never forced me, but he made it clear that he had the responsibility and he was gonna teach me. So I studied there 'til March, and then... I guess, I guess I studied hard, and I took, it was sort of a formality I'm sure, but I took the entrance exam and they accepted me in second grade. And, of course, I had no problem with English or Math, Algebra it was at that time in second grade, because it was almost like a review. But, so I never really studied, like, Japanese geography, so I'm not good at geography of Japan. [Laughs] Because all those things were covered in, mainly in elementary school, which I didn't go.

TI: And how about your classmates? How did they treat you? I mean, coming from America, did they treat you any differently?

IS: They did, some did. And you know, I often wonder what it was, because when I hear other people's experience, it's not, it's a little different. But one thing, maybe I was boarding at a teacher's home and my classmates knew that, so maybe that was, could have been a plus. It certainly wasn't a minus. Anyway, so they didn't pick on me that way. But they would compare things, I still remember, this was before the war. They were having some kind of a big parade and things, and one class was going on, right overhead in Tokyo, flew all this formation of military planes. And we all, the teacher let us run out to the window and look up at the sky and see this airplane flying. And I still remember one of my classmates turning around and said, "Hey, how about that?" You know, because -- [coughs] excuse me -- "More than you guys have." And then another incident -- excuse me [drinks water] -- I remember going, this is after the war had already started, we went out to like a, they called it army depot, where they have a lot of drum can, fifty gallon cans of fuel piled up, and it was our work to move those around or something. And one of the student telling me, "Hey, how about that? Look at all the gasoline we have. We're well-prepared for fighting your country."

TI: How about -- before the war, when you were amongst your classmates, was there ever, or anyone else, a curiosity about America, and did people ever ask you what America was like? Do you recall anything like that?

IS: No, I don't recall anything like that. But just because I was different, like in the English class or something, things would come up, "Hey, next time when we have to raise our hand, make sure you raise your hand and then we'll do the same if it's some other subject." They planned it that way. But I didn't get too much of that. And that's the same thing after I was even drafted -- I'm jumping ahead -- but I don't think I was, I hear where a lot of Niseis had it rough, they say, and the school I went to, they had two other Niseis, two brothers who were older than me, but that was all. And I mentioned maybe I had, this being boarded in a teacher's home had something to do with it. But I don't know. I wasn't treated that differently.

TI: How about you? What were your impressions? Coming from America, growing up to fifteen, and now being in a Japanese system with Japanese classmates, the students, how were Japanese different than, say, Americans, your classmates?

IS: Well, it was all boys, so that was, of course, different. And you know, it was a real strict school. If you had your trousers made by the school tailor, they didn't have, we didn't have pockets. And if you bought your trousers somewhere else, you had to sew that. And then, of course, we couldn't go to see any movie by ourselves, you have to go with a parent or something, somebody older. And you couldn't go into a coffee shop or even a restaurant by yourself. Did I say movie? You couldn't go see a movie, you had to go with a parent or somebody older.

TI: But how about things like maybe just the personalities of Americans versus Japanese? Did you notice anything different in terms of how they would maybe joke around or interact? Was there anything that you can sort of pinpoint?

IS: Well, those, I guess in that way, because I was at a teacher's home, I think I was a little more confined or controlled.

TI: So removed from a lot of that, that just, classmate.

IS: And yeah, there was no dating or anything like that.

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