Densho Digital Archive
Manzanar National Historic Site Collection
Title: Eddie Owada Interview
Narrator: Eddie Owada
Interviewer: Alisa Lynch
Location: Denver, Colorado
Date: July 5, 2008
Densho ID: denshovh-oeddie-01-0007

<Begin Segment 7>

AL: Where and when did you start school?

EO: I started in Tacoma. I remember Dad walking me up the street about two blocks, then uphill on Broadway, up about two blocks. And up about maybe three blocks uphill, rather, kind of steep. And over on the left hand side of that street was this school. That was the first school I remember going to, first grade. Dad took me up there once, maybe twice. But I remember the school.

AL: Do you remember the name of the school?

EO: No I don't.

AL: Okay. What... do you remember anything about the makeup of the school? Like were there, was it other Nihonjins or hakujins or a mixture? Do you know anything?

EO: It was... I didn't see very many Japanese or Nihonjin kids. But they were mostly hakujin, Caucasian children.

AL: And who did you play with as a kid?

EO: Probably with any kid that I would probably run into. I never remembered too much of who we, who I, who I played with or what we played. I know we'd run around the playground. But what I do remember, coming home from school, I'd walk down the street, down to Broadway. I would go down one more block and then turn to my right and then I would walk about a half a block and there was a doughnut shop there. And in the window they had the doughnut machine and it just, just thrilled me just watching it. I would watch the white dough doughnut drop in out of the little doughnut maker, fall into this little channel of hot oil. It would float along gettin' a little browner and browner and browner. When it got to the end it was all nice and brown, doughnut. And I would sit there for several minutes, stand there for several minutes just watching the donuts being deep fried like that.

AL: Did you ever get any of them?

EO: Never did.

AL: Never.

EO: Didn't have any money. Dad never gave us any money for that. And besides, probably won't know how to do it anyways. But, from there I'd walk another half a block, then back up a half a block to Broadway, and another half block to my left to where we lived, the studio.

AL: And was your neighborhood integrated? Different groups?

EO: There were a few Japanese families in the nearby blocks. But not on the block that we lived in, except for the corner store. On one corner as we came out of our studio, to the right on that corner was a Walgreen drugstore. On the left was the Furuya, F-U-R-U-Y-A, Furuya, and that's where the Japanese bank was, Furuya. And it was kind of a, almost like a dry goods store, Furuya. They did financial things as well as some dry goods type.

AL: I have another question about school. What was your favorite subject in school and why?

EO: Then? I was too young to have a favorite one.

AL: What about any sports or any other activities?

EO: Pardon?

AL: Did you do any sports or other activities in school?

EO: Not when I was young. Not that... not until I got into probably about third, fourth, fifth and sixth and seventh, eighth grade. It was K-eight types of school -- not K-eight, but one-eight type of school.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.