Densho Digital Archive - Victor Ikeda Interview (denshovh-ivictor-01-0017)

<Begin Segment 17>

RP: Victor, you were talking a little bit about how language functioned in your family, that your parents spoke very little, very little English and you spoke English predominantly in public schools and a little bit at home. Did your parents send you to Japanese language school?

VI: We went to Japanese language school.

RP: And what was that like for you?

VI: We went because I think we were supposed to go; we had to. We didn't study as hard as we would have in public school, we met a lot of people. We made our schoolteachers -- which were mothers of some of our friends -- cry because we were so bad. Of course, the people that studied, studious, they got a lot out of it. But a lot of us, it was kind of a place we had to go, and we learned some but not as much as we should have or I wish I had learned during that time. So usually right after school we'd go to our Japanese language school for one hour each day. They had other classes where they went on the weekends, but like the Catholic Maryknoll, they had their own language classes. But most of the teachers were the mothers of, they weren't quite teachers as teachers, but they were mothers that taught these students.

RP: Now, how strict were they in comparison to your public schools?

VI: Oh, the principal was strict, but the teachers, I think the students took advantage of 'em and they weren't that strict. Yeah.

RP: So you were able to get away with things?

VI: Yeah. We used to do, we used to do bad things in there. [Laughs]

RP: Oh, want to tell us about them?

VI: We'd always sit in the back of the class, so that if it got boring we'd just jump out of the window. We used to be in portables which... so they didn't have the discipline that we would have had at... but people learned. I learned a little bit, but I wish I had learned more.

RP: Was the school part of a Buddhist church?

VI: No, it was the Japanese community.

RP: It was in Japantown?

VI: No, it was out of Japantown, at the edge of Japantown. Right now, they're trying to make that into -- the interesting part about that is it's a pretty big school so when the people came out of the relocation centers, if they came back to Seattle, they had no place to go or live, they lived at the old Japanese language school until they found a place.

RP: So it functioned like a hostel?

VI: Yeah, for a while, right.

RP: For a while.

VI: Then after everybody moved out, I think the JACL may have had offices there. Tom was there when he first started with Densho. Now they're trying to make that into a cultural center so they are fundraising and all.