Densho Digital Archive - John Tomita Interview (denshovh-tjohn

<Begin Segment 8>

KP: This is tape two of a continuing interview with John Tomita. And, we were talking about how you got dropped off in Berkeley to attend school when you were fourteen years old.

JT: Yeah.

KP: How did, how did you feel about being... you said there were only maybe five other Japanese in the whole school. Were you very self-conscious that you were a minority in that school or...

JT: Funny, I never felt all, at all. And here I'm living in a Caucasian home. I stayed at home and I helped prepare breakfast and make my own lunch and go to school. Somehow it seems like, I really felt that, gee, they didn't even think that I was struggling. It, for me, it was just a survival, surviving. I mean that's, that was my life and I didn't think anything of it.

KP: So you'd come from segregated schools in Isleton...

JT: Yeah.

KP: To I guess an integrated school in Berkeley.

JT: Yeah.

KP: And didn't really have any thoughts about that?

JT: No.

KP: Or just, just the way it was, or...

JT: Yeah. I didn't think anything of it. I go to the class. I remember when I was junior.. there was a spring break, I think, what was it, it was a spring break and, with school. And that, that's the time of asparagus season in Isleton. So I used to go home and during the spring break I'd work in the asparagus farm. And that year, asparagus farm, I worked, I didn't know that, but the water that we were drinking was coming from the well right there in, in that camp that we were staying. And that, that year I got typhoid fever. When I went back to school in Berkeley, all of a sudden I'm getting a, a high fever and whatnot. And the doctor checked me out and I had typhoid. So I got, they put me in the Alameda County hospital. I was stuck in Alameda County hospital about a month. As a kid I really didn't know that was, I had typhoid. But I found out after, I think four weeks I think I was in there, then they told me I had a typhoid. But, after four week I guess... in fact, I was in isolation (there). I was wondering why I was isolated. And my folks were in Isleton. So nobody came to visit me. And, and I don't know, I guess my dad had to pay the bill, but, but after four weeks of absent from school I remember the report card came out and I know my history teacher... my math teacher, and mechanical drawing class, they gave me my average grade because I was sick. But then my history teacher wouldn't give me the... so I had to, you know at, at that age I still argued with that teacher. I said, "Why can't I?" And she said she'll, well, you'll have to, you didn't take a test. I said, "Well, give me the test then." And then she said, "Okay, if you, if you pass this test I'll give you the grade that you, you get on this test." And so after school I'm taking the test. No preparation or anything. And I got ninety or something. And then she says, "Well, okay." "You should give me at least an A-minus," I told her. But she said no, she can't give me an A-minus. I said, "Why can't you? You promised me if I take this test." But tell him again. So all she gave me was B. I thought oh, well, I argued. I remember arguing with her. But I had the nerve to argue. I was in junior high school. Yeah, Mrs. Green. Gosh, so I hated that teacher. [Laughs] But she was right though. I was out, out too long. But...

KP: So how often were you able to go back to Isleton while you were in Berkeley? Just spring break? How often did you go back to Isleton?

JT: Yes.

KP: And that was the only time or...

JT: Yeah, and the summer vacation.

KP: Summer. Okay.

JT: Spring break and yeah, so, when I was, started going to Berkeley, spring break I'm working and, and out in some asparagus farms or something, or packing shed. And then summer, I come home but my father already arranged for me to work at some farm and I remember, gosh, yeah, so, I'm, one spring break I remember I was the foreman, driving the tractor. And I've never driven a tractor but I drive it. Gosh, and the, the farmer's son, he want to go to town and he want to go to movie or something and then we come home late and then I don't get much sleep and gee the next day I'm on the tractor all day and I'm falling asleep on the tractor. [Laughs] I still remember we're disking this asparagus row and gosh, you just get in there and when you get to the end it rises. So when it, the tractor rises then I wake up and turn around, go to the next aisle.

KP: So you hit the end of the field.

JT: [Laughs] Yeah. And I don't know how I did it, but I did that. And, yeah, gosh, yeah, and then, oh gosh... one spring break I went to the same farm, was working on it, and my car broke down so I had to use the farmer's old pickup. He told me, the farmer told me, "Watch out for the brake." But gee, there was no break. And I'm goin' along the river, you know as a kid I'm going full speed and gosh, then the, there was some slow moving car in front of me and I said, I honked the horn and they don't move over and then I thought I was gonna pass that car. Then the opposing traffic came by and blocked me out. All I could do was smash into that rear end of the car. Oh, I jumped out of the car, I chew, I just chewed his... He looked at my car, that farmer's pickup and their car. I smashed this rear box that they had. And my car, the front end was smashed and water leaking all over. And, yeah, I patched up the car and drove home and we're at the garage so next day instead of going back to the farm I go to the junkyard in Stockton and pick, pick up the junk part and then... the color didn't match but the part matched so all I did was take off the wrecked, smashed part and put the... and, and then drove back.

KP: The brakes still didn't work when you drove back?

JT: No, the brakes didn't still work. But, I knew how to work it. You have to pump. I don't know, those old hydraulic brakes. You had to pump it to...

KP: So, so you were a better student in junior high school. Then you went on to high school.

JT: Yeah, Berkeley High.

KP: And, did you get in trouble there or were you a good student?

JT: Well, I was a pretty good student I think. But, I wanted to play football, and my dad wouldn't give me the release. So I went out for the swimming team since we were, I used to swimming in the Sacramento River there. Oh, I tried. And swimming, the student body is about 3,500. And about five hundred boys come out to the boys swimming team. So every week they, we have a time trial. You, first week you have to cut down your time to certain... or if you can't cut it down, you're out. And after one month of it, then there only five kids left, see. And I struggled a lot. And here I remember we have to practice swimming about a couple hours after school. And gee, I had to walk couple mile to the family that was working. I used to walk up the hill. Yeah. Then swim on the swimming team. But I made the swimming team. And, yeah, first year I was in the Circle B, they call it Circle B. They go by weight, height, and ... they only had the Circle B and the varsity. And, first two year I made my letter. You have to, in order to make your letter you have to, there's the Alameda County meet of high schools. And you have to come in at least second to get your letter. And the two years I got my letter. And the third year I tried out for varsity and the varsity I had a harder time. But somehow at the final meet in, in the Alameda County meet, somehow I cut down, I think I went down to twenty-seven seconds, that for the fifty, and, and I made it. So I got my varsity letter. I still have that varsity letter in there. Yeah, I found out that I was... anyway, I was, there's no Japanese guy gotta, get a varsity letter in Berkeley high school until I got my varsity letter in swimming. Yeah.