Densho Digital Archive - Kaz Yamamoto Interview (denshovh-ykaz-01-0004)

<Begin Segment 4>

RP: Let's go back a little ways, Kaz, and maybe you can share with us what was it like to grow up in Santa Monica?

KY: Beautiful. Santa Monica was, is paradise as far as I'm concerned. It was the nicest place to live and go to school. And I dreamed of... if you're a Santa Monican, if you go to Santa Monica High School, they have an outdoor theater, open theater, that's where the graduation happens. And I dreamed of graduating in that outside surroundings. But I never made it because of camp. I always dreamed that I would graduate in that place, you know. If you went, if you were there you'd know what I'm talkin' about. But, it's a beautiful place to graduate.

RP: Where did you go to grammar school then?

KY: I went to, I started at Garfield, Garfield school. And at the time when I went to Garfield, it was located right next to Santa Monica High School. It was an elementary school right next to Santa Monica High School. And that's where I went, started elementary school. And then it moved to Sixteenth Street, right near where, where I was living prior to the war. I lived on Sixteenth Street and Garfield moved right on Sixteenth Street, about a block away. And then I went to junior high school which is located on.. is it Sixteenth? I think it's, the junior high school is located between Fourteenth and Sixteenth Street, somethin' like that. And not too far from where I lived too. It's around Arizona and Sixteenth Street. So, it was close for me to go to school.

RP: And what was your upbringing like?

KY: Huh?

RP: What was your upbringing like?

KY: In what way?

RP: In your, well, with your parents, was it predominately sort of a combination of Japanese culture as well as American?

KY: Yeah. Most of the Japanese that lived in Santa Monica went to Japanese school. At least all my friends, close friends, went to Japanese school. So if there was anybody that didn't go to Japanese school they weren't my friends. They were, you know, they were strangers as far as I'm concerned. They, I would see them in high school or public school, but since they didn't go to Japanese school they weren't my friends because I didn't play with them. You could imagine why. And so all the people, Japanese friends that I knew, all went to Japanese school. Like Lewis Kato you said, he didn't go to Japanese school. So I didn't, I didn't play with him or anything like that so that's why he was a stranger as far as I was concerned. There was no association between us. Because you see them in public school and then back at Japanese school again, so you know, that's all you played with was the people that went to Japanese school.