Densho Digital Archive - Mas Okabe Interview (denshovh-omas

<Begin Segment 5>

KL: Were you with them the whole two years that your mother was gone?

MO: Yeah. I remember going to that little school. I used to be pretty bad, I guess. That's why my father sent me there because I was such a...

KL: Bad at school, or just into everything?

MO: Well, like a rascal, always getting into trouble.

KL: Did you continue that in the school? Did you make mischief in Sherman Island?

MO: Yes. I don't know if I should tell you this, but...

KL: Yes, you should. [Laughs]

MO: We had this one teacher, and she used to come to school on a pickup truck. She used to have milk, she used to bring milk for the kids to pass out during lunchtime. And during recess we'd go out, a few of us kids, and we'd put this board with nails sticking out under her tire, and then we used to push the car back and forth until she had a flat tire.

KL: You did that more than once?

MO: No, no, no, just once. I really caught it from Mr. Kakimi, he really gave me hell. In fact, I said he was like a father? He really locked me up in a little dark room in the barn. Being little, it used to scare me, like I don't know what's in that little room, like ghosts might come out and things like that. And he left me in there for a couple hours, I just cried and cried. Tried to teach me discipline, it helps. I learned. Things like that, you don't forget.

KL: Who else were the students in that school?

MO: Just kids around that, in that island. Lot of ranches.

KL: Was it mostly Japanese American kids?

MO: No, not too many.

KL: Who else was it? What are their backgrounds?

MO: Caucasians and Hispanics. It wasn't that big of a school. Like I said, it was one building. But it was memorable.

KL: How many students do you think there were?

MO: I don't recall.

KL: Did you learn any Spanish?

MO: No, no. I don't think any of them spoke Spanish at the time.

KL: The kids, you mean?

MO: Yeah. But I probably couldn't tell the difference anyway, what they were speaking.

KL: It sounds like your parents must have learned some English, at least your dad?

MO: They were not too fluent in English.

KL: How did they communicate with Wing or with other people?

MO: Well, most of the people in that community were Japanese people, so they didn't have to speak English too much.

KL: What about the chef, though? Did he speak Japanese?

MO: No, he was Chinese. I don't know how they communicated. I guess they understood sign language. And I guess the Chinese chef picked up on some Japanese words, something like that. They got along for many years, he was there. Now that you ask questions like that, I kind of wonder, how did they? I never thought about things like that.