<Begin Segment 3>

RP: Did you or any of your brothers and sisters go to Japanese language school when you were growing up?

FN: To what?

RP: Japanese language school.

FN: Oh yeah, uh-huh. We went a year or two. But we never learned anything. We just went there because the folks sent us there. And to tell you the truth, I cheated. You know Japanese character words, they give you a test. I used to write on my fingernail and as soon as I, we used to rub it off so to this day I can't read Japanese at all. Because we were supposed to go... what I mean is they had to pay so we went, but it was an hour after our school so we just went for one hour or so and you never learned anything then. After you're forced to go and you cheat...

[Interruption]

RP: Was this a language school in Selleck, Washington?

FN: Yeah, uh-huh.

RP: And do you remember where the school was?

FN: Oh, yeah. That was right in the camp there.

RP: What else was in the camp? Did you have other, did you have a store in the camp where you could buy rice or other products?

FN: Well, we had the general merchandise store right in the outskirt there and then there used to be a couple of peddlers coming from Seattle to sell fish and Japanese items which the other merchandise store didn't carry. So, the rice and things like that we had some of the Japanese foods and American foods but it wasn't strictly Japanese food is what we ate. So, we just, my folks were Americanized.

RP: Did either of your parents ever pick up much English? Did they...

FN: Well, broken English, yeah. But when you're in a camp like that when they're all Japanese they didn't ever have a facility to talk English so we, I learned quite a bit how to talk Japanese because most of those people in the camp spoke Japanese. And, we more or less had to speak Japanese to our folks so they have communication so we were bilinguals. But I never did know, as I said before, how to write or read Japanese.

RP: Just to speak it.

FN: But just speak it, yeah.

RP: Did you, did you attend a church or...

FN: Yeah, uh-huh.

RP: ...in Selleck. So what, was it a Buddhist or a Christian denomination?

FN: Well, there were both. I went to Christian, I went to Buddhist. And whenever the Christian comes, tries to get us involved then I say, "Oh, I'm a Buddhist." And when the Buddhist come to... I didn't want to get involved in the church things so when the Buddhist, Christian I said, "I'm a Buddhist," and when the Buddhist come I say, "I'm a Christian." So they left me out of the church affairs quite a bit. I guess I was smart enough.

RP: Kind of stay neutral?

FN: Huh?

RP: Kind of be neutral?

FN: Yeah.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright &copy; 2011 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.