Densho Digital Archive - George Yoshinaga Interview (denshovh-ygeorge

<Begin Segment 3>

AL: That's great. We're going to talk... we'll talk a lot more about your memories during the war and your military service and we want to get all that... make sure we capture all that so that is great. Just to fill in a little more of the early picture, where did you go to school as a kid?

GY: My grammar school was in Campbell, California. That's near where I used to live, and then from there I went to Gilroy and then when I got to high school I was in Mountain View.

AL: Okay. And did your family have any particular traditions that they followed, like for instance, religious traditions? Was your family Buddhist or Christian or none of the above?

GY: They were Buddhist but again because of my lack of interest in Japanese culture, I really didn't consider myself of any particular religion except later on I started to attend a Baptist church.

AL: So your brothers and sisters, were any of them more what do you say, more interested in Japanese culture?

GY: Yeah, they were more Japanese being older and me, I was the youngest so my older siblings were closer to my parents. I was sort of left out in the wilderness. [Laughs]

AL: What was the age difference between you and the next person?

GY: My sister above me is two years older. She's going to be eighty-eight. And then one above her was two years older and two years older and so forth.

AL: Every two years. Did your brothers or sisters go to... or should say your brother or your sisters go to Japanese language school?

GY: Yes, my mother sent me but they threw me out because they said I wasn't paying any attention. That's why my Japanese ability was zero.

AL: But did your other siblings, did they continue with Japanese?

GY: Yeah, they were very proficient in Japanese.

AL: So how did you communicate with your parents?

GY: Well, I would speak to them in English, they wouldn't know what I was talking about and they talked to me in Japanese and I wouldn't know what they were talking about. So I was sort of the outcast of the family. [Laughs]

AL: Did your brother and sisters translate for you?

GY: As a family we weren't really... by Japanese tradition most families are pretty well knit but I kind of went off on my own.

AL: Did your family have any other people around like who came from Kyushu or Kumamoto, like the kenjinkais or other people?

GY: Yeah, there were involved in quite a few Japanese culture type activities.

AL: Do you remember the names of any of them?

GY: No, 'cause as I said, my lack of communication.

AL: When you were in school, were most of your friends of any, you have Japanese American friends or not Japanese friends?

GY: Well, when I got to high school, when I was in grammar school I had... most of us were all Japanese Americans friends. When I got to high school there was only two of us in my class but I guess I must have got along with everybody 'cause in my new year they elected me to class president. [Laughs]

AL: Wow, and that's at which high school?

GY: Mountain View High School.

AL: Mountain View High School. Did you... before the war were you involved in sports at all?

GY: I played football at Mountain View. We had a three years undefeated, I wasn't first string but I played quite a bit and I earned my letter.

AL: Did you play any other sports?

GY: Yeah, football and then I played baseball a little bit.

AL: But football was your favorite?

GY: Yeah.

AL: What position did you play?

GY: I was a... well, in those days there was no such thing as defense and offense. I played a guard and in those days I guess I was, fit in size wise today everybody is two hundred thirty, forty pounds. I was I think 170 pounds, and I was among the heavier guys.

AL: Did your family do any certain holidays like for instance did your family celebrate Boy's Day or Girl's Day?

GY: Well, only thing I can remember is New Year's we had... in those days it was a custom for Japanese families to pay visit to the friend's home, you know, for New Year's lunch or dinner. So I remember that very distinctly.

AL: And who else came to your house?

GY: Well, most of 'em I people that used to visit me was the Caucasian friends and vice versa I would and I don't want to get ahead in the story but when one of my friends classmates he was killed in the Pacific, and that's one thing that always stayed in my mind because when I got back I was discharged, I was still wearing my uniform. So I went to pay my respect to my friend because I had heard that he had died in the service, and when I got to their home the mother came out and said, "You have a lot of nerve coming here, you Jap." And I'm in my uniform and I said, what's this you know, that was really, that really threw me for... so many years later I went back again and by this time everything, thinking changed a little bit so she apologized for throwing me off their porch.

AL: That's got to be really hard.

GY: Yeah.

AL: What was his name, your friend?

GY: Charles Frasier. And I went all the way from elementary school through high school with him so we were very close friends, you know. And I guess having been killed in the Pacific compounded the family's resentment for Japanese.