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RP: What schools did you attend in Milwakie?

MH: I attended Milwakie grammar school. And it's still there. And I have so many fond memories of Milwakie grammar school.

RP: Can you share a few of them with us?

MH: I think the most, one that I remember the most is when my father passed away the two first grade teachers, Miss Barnett and Miss Hart, came to me and said to me they wanted to visit my mom. And so I said, "Well, I'll arrange it." And so I arranged a day for them to come. My older brothers and sisters were at school and so I had to be interpreter for my mother and, and these two teachers walked a mile. We lived a mile from school. And they came and they talked to my mother and I kind of hid behind her while I tried to tell my mother what they were trying to say to her. And I still remember those two wonderful teachers.

The other teacher that I remember is my sixth grade teacher who was the principal also. And on Sunday, December the 7th, when the war began, you know, it's kind of like what is it going to be like when we went to school? He had an assembly. He called an assembly since he was the principal and also my sixth grade teacher. And he explained to the students that there were Japanese children attending the grammar school and that they were not responsible for the war. And, I, to this day I could still see him standing there telling that to the students. And he also called me into the office on my last day of school before we were sent away and he says, "I have your report card ready for you and you passed with flying colors." And then he just grabbed me and gave me a hug and, and Japanese people are not big huggers but I knew instinctively that he was... really cared about, about me and the other Japanese students that were at our school. So those are the really good experiences.

I have to tell you about one more. In the second grade I was in the split second/third grade and I think I was the only girl in the second grade part of it. But when we went out to recess everybody had a doll, all the girls had a doll and they would play with it, play with them. And Miss Kao, one, that Christmas, she took a doll to my dad who was working at Pier Market downtown and gave it to her and said, "This is for your daughter, Masako. I want her to have it as a Christmas present." And I wish I had that doll but I can remember it had a green organdy dress, eyes that closed and shut, and had kind of like a sawdust body and had shoes. And it, I played with it forever. But I didn't take it with me when we went to camp. So I don't, I don't even remember what happened to it. But she was another teacher that I remember with so much fondness. Those are happy stories.

And really, in Milwakie, I don't think we had a lot of prejudice. I can remember maybe a couple of kids calling us J-A-P but other than that I think that they were very tolerant toward us. And I think it all had to do with the Watanabe family. They planted cherry trees along McLoughlin Boulevard, which was a big thoroughway to Portland. I'm not sure if any of them are standing yet. And they were a big presence in the town of Milwakie. Yeah, that was all good, yeah. I'm skipping around a lot, but...

RP: Did you have any religious affiliations growing up at all?

MH: My folks, or my mother and father... my father especially, wanted us to attend the church up in the, up, up the hill, we used to call it. But it was a non-denominational Christian church and so I spent my year, early years, attending Sunday school there all the way through my sixth grade. And my favorite teacher there was a Yoshizawa, and she played the organ. She was very talented and she was also my Sunday school teacher as a first, second, third, fourth grade and I remember all the stars we got etcetera because remember a verse. Don't ask me now, okay. And then as a sixth grader I had another Sunday school teacher, a man, who I was very fond of too.

RP: Were your parents also rooted in the Christian faith?

MH: Not at the time. Although, for whatever reason, my mother... and I think it's because so many of her friends from Fukushima-ken belonged to the Japanese Methodist Church in Portland and so she decided that that's where would have this service for my father although he was not a Christian, quote. And the funeral director made sure that the, that's where it would be held and he's the one who drove us. But in the meantime, before we could even have it there, she had to get permission to go because of the five-mile limit in driving.

RP: Right.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2010 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.