Densho Digital Archive - Minoru J. Shibata Interview (denshovh-sminoru-01-0014)

<Begin Segment 14>

KL: How did Richard Henry Dana junior high school differ from school on Terminal Island?

MS: Well, Terminal Island was just an elementary school. The school itself, the structure again was just a, other than a barracks building, Terminal Island was again, the schools were also barracks buildings. But the classes were excellent as far as I'm concerned.

KL: On Terminal Island?

MS: On Terminal Island, yeah, they had good teachers, and today I wonder what motivated them to teach in a school where all the kids were Japanese Americans, speaking Japanese all over the place, except in class. [Laughs] We had to convert to English. During recess or everything, all the conversation turned to Japanese. And I think it sort of bothered some teachers that we weren't really learning English well enough. And as a matter of fact, we didn't learn how to speak English well, because you'll find that most interviews like mine, okay, when we speak, we're very inarticulate mostly. You'll find that when you hear people from, who grew up in Terminal Island, try to speak or explain anything. Because most of the time, unless they learn after junior high school to learn how to articulate and make good speeches, they maintained a habit of what we did in Terminal Island. You know, I was trying to find a DVD that was made called Furusato, which means "home," you know of that? Okay, and you listen to those people, and also if you listen to the people on the DVD about the 442 and the MIS, you'll find that many of those people are the same way. Their articulation and what they talk about is very bad, same with mine. And I think that comes from speaking, kind of mixing Japanese, and also we grew up under the training of not to be aggressively... what's the word I want? Anyway, it doesn't encourage you to be... what's the word I want? I can't think of the word.

KL: Something about holding onto traditions or integrating?

MS: Not trying to hold on, it was just a habit that formed as you grew up. In Terminal Island, if you could have listened to a conversation, it was half Japanese, half English, that the Nisei people spoke. As a matter of fact, not too long ago, I heard one, this is a company person at the place where we're teaching aikido right now, and he's in one of the classes. And he came on the phone asking another person, said, "Are you aikido-ing today?" [Laughs] Are you practicing aikido, right? Aikido is a Japanese word, add an I-N-G, that means, okay, are you participating, are you practicing aikido today? So I burst out laughing when I heard that. That's the way we spoke, all the Nisei people.

KL: Combined grammar and vocabulary.

MS: Exactly, yeah. We mixed to languages. So that's the habit we formed.

KL: Who were the teachers then in the Terminal Island school?

MS: The schools were... I don't recall any male teachers, they were all women teachers, and the teachers I had, I liked every one of them, even when they were a little strict. [Laughs] Like I was speaking too much Japanese all the time. But I still remember Mrs. Davis, who was my sixth grade teacher, Miss Burbank, who became Mrs. Mangoney after she married, I recall these teachers because they were so nice and so caring about what we learned.

KL: Where did they live?

MS: I don't know. I don't know where they commuted from to teach in Terminal Island.