Densho Digital Archive - Joyce Okazaki Interview I (denshovh-ojoyce-01-0007)

<Begin Segment 7>

KL: I didn't say this on the first one, but I should have. This is tape two of a continuing interview with Joyce Okazaki on June 20, 2012. So I wanted to ask you, we left off talking about your dad, but I wanted to ask you about the Maryknoll community, too, and how you became involved in Maryknoll, and what your school was like.

JO: Well, I went to Maryknoll from first grade, and just part of second grade, because, of course, World War II started and we had to leave. I really don't know why I was going to Maryknoll, but I understood from my mother that she would tell the bus driver -- because the bus would pick me up in the morning to go to school, otherwise I would have had to walk to school -- so the bus picked me up in the morning, and in the afternoon, she would tell the bus driver whether I was to be dropped off back at home or to be dropped off at the store, because the store was on Main Street, very close to Little Tokyo, very close to where Maryknoll was. But I didn't know that then, I had no idea where things were. So that was the only reason, I think, why I went. But also I know that they taught Japanese there, so I had my first lessons in Japanese. That was in first grade and then part of second grade.

KL: That was just part of the curriculum, the daily lessons was in Japanese?

JO: Yes, at Maryknoll. And in those days, if the children went to public school, they usually had to go to Japanese school either after school or on the weekends. And so I didn't do that, I just went to Maryknoll. I have a feeling that that's one of the reasons why my mom sent me there, but the other reason was for the convenience of the bus.

KL: Was it a separate language class, or was it just some instruction in English and some in Japanese?

JO: Well, it was a separate Japanese class. The main, all the classes, all the school day was in English except for one period, I guess, or half hour or whatever, when we learned Japanese, how to write and how to read.

KL: Do you remember your classrooms there?

JO: Not really, it was so long ago. But like I said, I only remember this one boy. He came to the class in second grade, and he didn't know any English, and so I was assigned to be one of his tutors in reading, and we would rotate. And so I did that. Go to Manzanar, and who is in my class in third grade? The same kid. This was third grade, you know, we left second grade. I didn't finish second grade, I wanted to move on to third grade, but there he was. Okay, I had to... then we go on from Manzanar.