<Begin Segment 5>

RM: And what about you? Where did you go to school?

JY: I went to California Street School, it's up on Bunker Hill.

RM: Was that a grammar school?

JY: Yeah, it's a grammar school. And then I went to Central Junior High School, then I went to Lincoln High School, I graduated from that, and here comes the war.

RM: What can you tell us about your grammar school experience? What was the makeup of the classes?

JY: It was mixed, it was Caucasian, Latinos, very few blacks at that area during that time, and quite a few Chinese. We walked to school every day, and we'd walk up to Broadway and then climb a hill, go up to Bunker Hill. And our school was right next door to Central Junior High School. In fact, we used to get our lunch from the junior high, we'd have friends who were in junior high school, for ten cents you'd get hash, mashed potato, and two slices of bread for ten cents. [Laughs]

RM: That's a good deal.

JY: It was amazing.

RM: Were there any Japanese Americans in your grammar school?

JY: Oh, yes.

RM: Who were your friends?

JY: Well, could be Mexican and Chinese, and I had all kind of friends, whoever was in class, and we got along.

RM: What did you do for fun when you were a kid?

JY: We kicked the can, played hide and go seek and things like that. Anything that doesn't require any balls or anything. We played baseball, that was graduating into something a little more, well, different from where we're used to. Yeah, I said that in my book in there. We kicked the can, how we entertained was we all played hide and seek and all that.

RM: Could you... for those of us, a generation that's never played Kick the Can, could you describe what that is?

JY: Well, we have a can, metal, and one guy is elected to kick it, then we all go hide. Then the guy got to put the can back where it was kicked from, and then look for us. That's what the game consists of.

RM: So that's how much time he has, is how far he can kick it, yeah. What about holidays and celebrations in Chinatown? What were those like?

JY: Well, it was a great thing, especially toward Chinese New Year, because we get lychee. Yeah, they gave us quarters in a red paper, we'd go up to the old Chinese and say, "Gung Hay Fat Choy," and they'd give us one. We were pretty busy, because as soon as we leave American school, we have to go to Chinese school, and that's from three-thirty to seven-thirty at night. But really I didn't learn much, but my friend Ada remembers a lot of Chinese words. To me it was nothing... during my gas company job, I never... in fact, they offered me a job as a local manager in Alhambra, so they said, "You want that job?" I said, "No, I can't speak Chinese. I can hardly speak English," I told him. [Laughs] That was a parallel move. He said, "You want it?" I said, "No, I don't want to dress up in a suit every day and go out to lunch and mingle with the officials, that wasn't my sort of thing.

RM: What was Chinese school like?

JY: Well, you learned to read and write, and you have to go up to the class, in front of the class and read the book, see what you have learned. Then you have to write it down. It was pretty interesting.

RM: Do you remember your teachers?

JY: Of course I went to school and then we were the bad boys, we set the clock early when the school teacher comes. [Laughs] Because it had no glass in front of it. It was up in Aliso Alley, August Alley in Los Angeles Street. It was a church.

RM: That was another question I had, was your family religious, did they go to any churches?

JY: No, but my dad had his own religion: as long as you're good to people, don't do 'em any harm, and help if you could. Well, we went to Sunday school, Miss Early, the Caucasian lady that donated her time for the Chinese. We just went because Frank Gets, who used to teach the bible to us, would take us fishing to Sycamore Grove in his pickup. He had little seats in the back where we sat, that's the only reason we went there and listened to him for an hour, then he'd take us out to the beach or Redondo Pier or to Lincoln Park or Sycamore Grove. That's the only reason we went. We weren't religious.

RM: What was your mom's life like during this time?

JY: She was busy working, washing clothes, cooking and all that.

RM: For the family?

JY: The family kept her busy. She didn't have too much time to herself until the boys started getting married and moving away, then she had time.

RM: Did your parents speak Chinese at home?

JY: Oh, yes, Cantonese. In fact, I'm a foreigner now, because most of 'em speak Mandarin, they talk to me in Mandarin and I tell him I'm Cantonese. I was born here and I can't understand. Even when we went back in China, we were foreigners, we can't speak the language.

RM: Did your parents learn English?

JY: Very little, very little, because they lived in a ghetto just among Chinese.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2015 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.