Densho Digital Archive - Mas Okabe Interview (denshovh-omas

<Begin Segment 6>

KL: But then you came back to downtown Sacramento when your mother returned?

MO: Yeah, uh-huh.

KL: How was that, to come back from farm life to Sacramento?

MO: Well, I don't know, I just came back and accepted it, and I had friends. I used to play with them. Used to go out after school, meet my friends, come back at dinnertime, just play, play, play.

KL: How did you play?

MO: Oh, we used to play all kinds of stuff, used to play football, and played games that they don't play anymore here. We used to play marbles, and we used to throw knives into the ground, what do you call that, Mumbledy Peg or something like that. Kids don't do things like that anymore. Everything is inside the house.

KL: What places did you go to play in Sacramento?

MO: Oh, about within a block radius.

KL: Someone's yard or a park?

MO: No, in the alley. Nobody had a yard in the city, it was always in the street, not street, but on the sidewalk or in alleys where there aren't too many cars. Sometimes we'd go to the park, which is pretty far, and we used to walk to it. When we'd go to Sacramento now, and I recall the park, and from the park to where we used to live, I think, god, this is far. We used to walk way out here, you know, and we used to go fishing in the lake there, in the park, my brother used to take me.

KL: What's the name of the park?

MO: William Land Park. And we used to go there and fish for perch, little tiny things. Make balls out of bread, used to wet the bread and make dough, and then put that on the hook and dump it into the water, catch these little perch. I don't know what we did with those things, because these were so tiny. But it was fun.

KL: What was the name of your school in Sacramento?

MO: My school? Lincoln, Lincoln school. I guess it was Lincoln grammar school. I think it might have been middle type school, middle grade, but I guess they didn't call it middle grade then, Lincoln school. And then I was there, and from there we went to camp.

KL: What other, how else did your family participate in community life in Sacramento? Were you part of any other groups or church?

MO: Mostly Japanese, yeah. Japanese groups. We used to belong to... my dad used to make my brother and I take kendo, judo, and I used to take sumo, all these martial arts. Every night, not every night of the week, but we used to go judo and kendo and stuff like that. And I guess it instilled discipline.

KL: You and your brothers would all go?

MO: Yeah.

KL: Did you like it, judo and kendo?

MO: Well, I didn't mind that part too much, but the part I didn't like about kendo was we used to do it in the gym, and we had to sit on the hard wooden floor with our feet underneath us, not the comfortable style. But the other one, the teacher would talk and talk, and it hurt, you know. Go to sleep and stuff like that. That's the only part I didn't care for.

KL: What did the teacher talk about?

MO: Oh, this and that. Discipline. It seemed like eternity, but I guess it wasn't that long.

KL: Probably like two minutes.

MO: Yeah. [Laughs] But in a way, it was fun.

KL: Why do you think your dad wanted you to go to those classes?

MO: Discipline, yeah. I think that's it. And I think he wanted to teach us about Japan, things like that.

KL: I used to take ballet, and in ballet, all the terms are French. Is it like that in kendo and sumo, was it Japanese?

MO: Yeah, everything. Don't ask me what they were, I don't recall.

KL: Did you go to language school?

MO: Yes. Before the war we used to go to Japanese school after English school, one hour. Then on Saturday we used to go half a day and learn Japanese.

KL: How was that? Was it fun or was it a task?

MO: It wasn't bad. It wasn't bad. The teachers were very strict. If you misbehaved, they'd kind of pop you on the head with a ruler. It wasn't too bad.

KL: Where was it held?

MO: It was held in a building behind the Buddhist church. They used to call it Sakura Gakuen.

KL: Was kendo and judo and sumo in the same place?

MO: It was in that Buddhist gym. And we used to carry our bag, kendo, you know how they wear those men and stuff like that, we used to carry those on a stick and just walk over there.

KL: And were you part of the church also?

MO: Yes, we used to go to church every Sunday. But that was about it, we were too young to be in any youth organization at church.

KL: And you were still living above the restaurant that whole time, right?

MO: Yes.

KL: I wanted to ask you, too, when your mom and your sister came back, how did you, how did you react to the death of your siblings? Was that a scary thing, or was it so far removed...

MO: It's kind of far removed, and I was at that young age that it didn't bother me that much. I was sad, I guess, but that was about it. Then my oldest siblings that passed away, I don't even recall them.

KL: Yeah, they just left.