Densho Digital Archive - Tommy T. Kushi Interview (denshovh-ktommy-01-0009)

<Begin Segment 9>

RP: As you were growing up entering high school, were you aware of Japan and the situation in the world at all, or were you just busy being a teenager?

TK: Well, at our church, when the things started to kind of heat up around October or September before the war started, some guys were saying, "Gee, it looks like there's going to be a war," you know. We used to say, "A small country like Japan trying to attack? No way. Look how far they are, the boats. They're crazy." We used to say, "They're crazy. They won't attack." Boy, when it started, he was all mad, "What the heck are they doing? What are they thinking?" We don't know too much about politics.

RP: Did you ever get a sense from your father where he stood, where his loyalties...

TK: No, he never did mention it.

RP: He didn't express any concern about his...

TK: We never did talk about it, in those days. Like I say, politics were way, we're too busy trying to earn a living. So who cares about what Japan's doing?

RP: "We got our own problems."

TK: Yeah. And we used to see, like I say, they used to bring the movies over, and they used to have some war pictures from Japan. Well, naturally, okay, we root for Japan against the Chinese or some of these... but that's about it. [Laughs] No politics involved, just the war picture.

KP: Kind of like Cowboys and Indians.

TK: Yeah, that's it. [Laughs]

RP: Japanese-style.

TK: That's about it.

RP: Did you have Caucasian friends during the time you were going to high school?

TK: Yeah, my next door neighbor... well, I don't know if it's Caucasian, he's half Mexican, his mother was French. Joe Lopez. We used to, well, he's just next door so I'd just go over there and go up to the bus stop. So that's about it.

RP: How far was it from your farm to the grammar school that you attended?

TK: Three miles.

RP: And you walked that?

TK: Yeah. Well, until, let's see, third or fourth grade, I think Mom used to take us. But after that, we used to walk. Because we used to come down Florin Road to Stockton Boulevard, two miles, and one mile that way. Then my friend used to live half mile from the corner. I'd drop him off or whatever, and then I'd walk the rest by myself. Or sometimes we walked, take a shortcut through those people's vineyards and take a shortcut. And when we'd do that, I'd run into -- 'cause I had a lot of Caucasian friends that used to live around that neighborhood. There's not too many Japanese, see. So I used to know a lot of Caucasian people, and we used to walk.