<Begin Segment 5>

KP: So when did you... so next you went to, from the grammar school Fruit Ridge grammar school, right?

TT: Yeah, then we went to Stanford junior high school. That's when the war broke out.

KP: And Stanford junior high school, what grade was that that you started at?

TT: I was ninth grade. Because I think ninth grade, from there, you went to Sacramento High School.

KP: So it was just a one-year school?

TT: No, that was two years, I think they have junior high school now. What is, it, seventh and eighth, or something like that.

KP: How far away was that from home?

TT: Oh, that was quite a walk, I remember. I would say maybe about a couple miles. At first we walked, but then we worked part-time, we got ourselves a bicycle, that's all I know. [Laughs]

KP: Did you walk with other kids in your class, or did you walk by yourself?

TT: No, no. I had neighbors, we had a couple of neighbors, so we walked there. We never had to worry about getting kidnapped or anything like that. That's one thing we never worried about. Even out at Woodland, middle of nowhere, guy offered us a ride on a hot summer day, we just jumped in the car and went, he'd give us a ride home. You dare not do it now, but we used to do it then. You're out in the farm, middle of nowhere, I kid you not. You got a ride on a hot summer day instead of walking a mile, mile and a half, give you a ride, we used to get a ride.

KP: So who were some of the kids you played with?

TT: Well, my neighbor's kids, and then the other kids that come to school lived around in the Oak Park area. I had far friends, 'cause we had no problem. You know, I don't know why right now we have a lot of prejudice things, but I didn't have that problem when I was growing up.

KP: So you had Caucasian friends and Japanese friends.

TT: Oh, yeah. I don't know. To me, you mentioned that now, you think about it, we didn't have no such thing as black or white or Caucasian or Mexican, things like that, I don't remember that. At least I didn't watchacall... but when the war broke out, oh, yeah, then, but not before.

KP: So what kind of church did your family go to?

TT: Well, we used to get to the Buddhist church in Sacramento, it used to be on 4th & 5th on O Street, that used to be a Buddhist church there. Used to go there. Not all the time, but when it was...

KP: Sounds like you were pretty busy on Sundays.

TT: Oh, yeah. 'Cause we had to get ready for the next day market, Monday morning market.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.