<Begin Segment 7>

RM: So let me switch a little bit into talking about junior high. We talked a little about your grammar school, and then you said, you just moved one building over for junior high?

JY: Yeah, it was just next door. In fact, we used to get the older boys, like I told you, they'd get our lunch for us.

RM: What was junior high like for you? Was there anything that stood out?

JY: Well, we were pretty Americanized, we dressed for gym and all that. We had fun. We had dances and all that in the gym. We may go with all the rest of the kids.

RM: How about high school? Where did you go to high school?

JY: Yeah, Lincoln High School. Mostly Italian during that time. In fact, Kenny Washington came from there, great football player. He was about three years ahead of me.

RM: What was the makeup of Lincoln High School the same as your grammar school had been, the same mix of kids?

JY: Yeah, we had all kind of nationality there, mostly Italian. North Broadway was Italian town. In fact, when we moved to Solano Avenue, mostly Italian there. It was mostly kids I knew, because I went to high school with them and all that.

RM: How far is Lincoln High School from where your house was?

JY: Chinatown?

RM: Yeah.

JY: Let's see, about three or four miles. We'd take the streetcar.

RM: Okay.

JY: So they drop you right in front of the high school, and they go down to Lincoln Park.

RM: Did you play any sports in high school?

JY: Yeah, went out for track and all that, basketball. Yeah, we did everything.

RM: What were your favorite classes? What did you like doing?

JY: Oh, I don't know. None, if I had to study. [Laughs] I didn't take a college prep course because most Asians didn't go to college during that time, only a few from rich families.

RM: Do you remember thinking about what you were going to do when you graduated?

JY: I figured I'd get a job down in produce. I work in produce.

RM: While you were in high school, did you work in produce?

JY: No, no, after high school I got a job in produce, and it was union scale at that time, I'd get twenty-five dollars a week. My brothers used to work for fifteen, sixteen dollars six days a week. So they were delivery boys or working the store or something like that. We couldn't get any job that's meaningful, I should say. I was the first Chinese that went into So. Cal gas company in '51. There was hardly any Chinese.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2015 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.