<Begin Segment 8>

RP: And so you went to Elk Grove High School, correct?

KN: Uh-huh.

RP: And you said that you attended a segregated school for grammar school.

KN: Grammar school, grammar school. Yeah, all the Japanese went to one side and hakujin went to the other side.

RP: And so...

KN: West school, West Grammar School and East Grammar School, I went to East. And we didn't associate with white people until we went to high school.

RP: What was that like? Suddenly you met white people?

KN: Oh, fun, it was nice. You have to get along you know. English class you're all mixed. And in gym it's all mixed. So it was all right. It's just that when we're in grammar school it was segregated but that's how it was so we just never thought anything about it.

RP: So did you, did any of the Caucasian kids treat you differently being Japanese American? Did you...

KN: No.

RP: Any prejudice or...

KN: No, just a few that called us "Japs," some boys, but then other than that we got along fine with hakujin girls. 'Cause we played together. We played basketball. Baseball we all had to play together so we got along fine.

RP: And so you took, your popular subjects in high school were typing and did you start to do shorthand, too, there?

KN: Yeah, uh-huh. Typing and shorthand was my favorite. And I used it after I graduated I went to camp, I was a full time secretary. And some of these white people that came to work we called them Okies and Arkies. They never had a secretary before. They didn't know how to dictate. They write it in longhand, you have to read it back to them what they wrote.

RP: Yeah. We're, we're gonna get to the that in just a little bit here. What about your older sister, Norma, had she...

KN: Oh, she got married young and then she moved away. She...

RP: While you were in high school she got married?

KN: Yeah, she lived in Los Angeles.

RP: And who did she marry?

KN: She married... I forgot. [Asks someone off camera] What did Kay do?

Off Camera: What did he do? Grocery store. Grocery?

KN: Yeah, I think he was a grocer. My sister married a grocery man in Los Angeles.

RP: So she was the first one to leave the, leave the farm.

KN: Yeah. She hated it.

RP: And Roy, your brother, the bossy one...

KN: Oh, he got... yeah, he got drafted in the army. And then, oh, and then did he miss us. He used to boss us around, "Iron my shirt. Wash my pants." He's the only son in the family. There's seven of us and he was next to the oldest and oh, he bossed us around but did he miss us when he went in the army.

RP: Did he join the army before the war broke out?

KN: Yeah, he was drafted.

RP: He was drafted.

KN: And then he went to Italy.

RP: Okay. First draft, yeah. Okay. And so you were, you played sports in high school?

KN: Not very much. I wasn't very good.

RP: At basketball still?

KN: Yeah. I played baseball but I wasn't very good at it.

RP: Baseball too?

KN: Just in the gym class we all had to do it.

RP: Right. Did you, were you a part of a club or any, any other...

KN: No, just from the Buddhist church, church basketball team. We played other, other towns.

RP: And so you graduated in 1937 from Elk Grove?

KN: Yeah, Elk Grove High School.

RP: Okay. What was the, what were the school colors?

KN: Blue and gold huh? [Looks off camera.] Blue and gold.

RP: Uh-huh. And did you have a mascot?

KN: I don't think... [Looks off camera.] Did you guys have a mascot?

Off Camera: Well we're the herd, so.

Off Camera: Thundering Herd.

Off Camera: Yeah, we were the Thundering Herd but I don't know if we had a mascot.

KN: I don't think we had a mascot.

RP: So we have a, we have a couple of photos of you if you would... can you hold those up to the camera or show me?

Off Camera: Yeah, show Richard.

RP: Oh.

Off Camera: Hold on.

RP: Oh.

KN: Do you want me to hold this?

RP: Can you hold them up like you're gonna show me?

KN: [Holds up two photos]

Off Camera: And that's... please explain those.

RP: And so Kimiko, that, the picture of you in front of you house.

KN: Uh-huh.

RP: Is that in front of your house?

KN: [Nods] The side.

RP: And you're, how old are you?

KN: I don't know, about fifteen or sixteen I guess.

RP: Okay. And then a picture of you in a cap and gown.

KN: Yeah, that's my high school.

RP: And you told me that you didn't have your own cap and gown.

KN: No, this was a... photographer's studio loaned us this. They wouldn't let us borrow the one that we wore at the graduation.

Off Camera: [Takes photos] Thank you for showing those to us.

RP: Do you remember a, your graduation and senior prom? Did you have a senior prom too?

KN: I don't think I even went to the prom. Only hakujin went to the prom. The Japanese didn't go.

RP: Why not?

KN: I don't know. Just didn't. Just hakujin thought that was their thing. They wasn't thinking of thinking the Japanese would go where they go.

RP: So they didn't want you there?

KN: I don't know. They never asked so we never went. But later on it changed. Hakujin got friendly with the Japanese but early on hakujin went hakujin and Japanese went Japanese.

RP: What, who were your closest neighbors to your farm in...

KN: Oh, we had a hakujin neighbor.

RP: Did you?

KN: Yeah.

RP: What was his name?

KN: Robbins. Oh, I don't know what he did. But he went to work someplace but then he helped himself to strawberries every day. They never go without strawberries. They come have the strawberries and I give, we give to them. 'Cause what little they eat it doesn't matter. I just give him baskets at a time. Oh they liked that. Free strawberries.

RP: Did you have a small strawberry stand too somewhere?

KN: Huh?

RP: Did you, did you sell strawberries on the, on the road there at all?

KN: No. No.

RP: No?

KN: But people came and wanted it so we, we just sell it to them if they want it but we never had a stand to sell it. We're too busy pickin' 'em to ship 'em.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright &copy; 2011 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.