<Begin Segment 6>

RP: Which school were you attending at that time?

OM: Richard Henry Dana Junior High School in San Pedro.

RP: Where 30 percent of the student body was Japanese?

OM: Yeah, from Terminal Island. The people that were farmers, like us, on the San Pedro side, mainland side, went to school just like normal. The people from Terminal Island couldn't get across though, on the ferry. So they weren't at school.

RP: Anything else strange about that day, that first day in school?

OM: Other than the student body, I didn't, you know, there was no animosity or, you know, spiteful words or whatever said, other than I remember my teacher said something about they changed my seating assignment from where I was sitting to a table next to the window. And she appointed me as the official airplane spotter as though I knew a zero from a, whatever, you know, that I was supposed to be able to... I don't know what her thinking was but that's what I was appointed as. [Laughs] I didn't think it was very funny.

RP: Just to go back a little ways, did you take make any trips to Terminal Island?

OM: Oh yeah, we used to go to Japanese school on Terminal Island. Not where her mother was teaching but the other one.

RP: You went to the Buddhist Japanese school.

OM: Yeah, the Buddhist one. It was probably the larger Japanese school. And we started going there on Saturdays. My father would make egg deliveries to Terminal Island stores and we would attend Japanese school during the day. It was an all day, from nine to three, or something like that. And then come home when he came home. But then just before the war, I can still remember, we used to go on weekdays a couple times a week for an hour, you know. And we used to use the ferry to go across. He would pick us up at the public school, drop us off at the ferry and then he'd come back and pick us up, you know. But we did that for some time too. But most of the time I remember we used to go on Saturdays.

RP: How far did you get in Japanese language school?

OM: Not very far, probably sixth grade or something like that. But, fortunately or whatever, I was able to pick it up again in camp, in Tule Lake I went to school, and then picked up one year at Berkeley. So, in fact, I probably learned more at Berkeley in that one year than the rest, ten years that I attended. [Laughs] But I forgot everything now so...

RP: Did they stress reading or writing over... what was stressed in language school?

OM: It was, to put it bluntly, it was hell. [Laughs] I mean just learning to read and write, you know, your interest wasn't there, first of all. It felt like you were forced to go and so you did the best you could but I don't recall doing a heck of a lot. I mean, I remember I used to hate like heck once a year they used to have an annual oratorical contest. And naturally you had to kind of, you have to say it in Japanese, that's what you're there for, right? And it's so embarrassing because you're competing, it's not that you're trying beat somebody, but you're competing with a lot people from Terminal Island who just naturally spoke Japanese. And the farmers like us from the mainland side, we just didn't have it. Even though my parents spoke Japanese, among themselves and to us, we just never picked it up. So that was the one thing I used to hate like heck in Japanese school, was that annual, what they call hanashitaikai, oratorical contest. [Laughs]

RP: How did you get along with the kids from Terminal Island?

OM: You know, there was a kind of a animosity, if you will, because we're from the mainland, I don't know. I don't know what it is. But, you know, among people you knew in school, for example, public school, they were fine kids. They were just like us. But they tended to speak Japanese, you know, and just like any other language I guess you get familiar with the... I always thought that whenever I see, I hear, somebody talking in a foreign language, I think, "Are they talking about me?" you know. I get that feeling even among them. Even though I can understand a little bit of Japanese, I feel maybe they're saying something because they used to do that. I mean, I don't know how to swear in Japanese, I don't know how, but I get to feeling that they were. [Laughs] My dad used to talk like that. Very rough, well, he was a fisherman for a while and he used to use language that I hadn't heard. When he gets mad, he'll use a language that... I know it's Japanese but it's... he's calling my mother something or he's calling me something or whatever. But that's the impression I get with some of the younger guys in Terminal Island. But overall, you know, because I used to see them at public school, they were very... I had no problem with them. But some people, they probably felt a little bit difference towards us more than me towards them because I can get along with anybody.

RP: What about your social life? Did you have community events?

OM: Well, you know, social life, I didn't go to church. We didn't go to church. Our family was not very religious. We used to go to movies once in a while, that was a big deal, Japanese movies.

RP: Where did you go?

OM: Well, the Japanese schools. Either, like there was one up in the hills in San Pedro. I don't know if it's called the Ninth Street School or something. You go straight up Ninth Street and way back in the hills there used to be a Japanese school. I don't how we hear about it but if there was a good movie on or something like that we'd go as a family. And I could still remember some of those movies, it was silent movies, there was no sound, no audio except somebody standing on the side, what they'd call 'em, benshis or something like that. He's speaking the part of everybody, it's amazing, he changes his voice when a girl's speaking and when a guy is speaking he lowers his voice and all that. But you get the gist of the movie, you know, through the action. And then, I mean, American movies we'd go see but I can remember we didn't have any money so we used to save bread wrappers or coupons off of bread, you know, and maybe if you accumulate ten of 'em you can go to see a movie for free or something. Once in a while we used to do that but there was really no social life, no interaction with the opposite sex or anything like that. Well, we were too young anyway. But that changed I think in camp. We never saw any girls before, right, other than my sister. When you saw cute little girls in camp, I go, wow, we're missing something here. So to answer your question, very little social life.

RP: What about... were sports a part of your life?

OM: I like to think so. You know, baseball... I remember we used to just practice pole vaulting at home, you know. My mother used to have little brown sticks, not bamboo, but just round poles and we'd dig a hole in the ground and then put up poles and try to pole vault with that stick. And you know, we'd get up pretty good but I think overall our family, the boys, were athletic. So we played, well, I was still in seventh grade so we didn't... there was no athletic sports at that time. In grammar school or elementary school there's no sports. I mean, you played kickball or whatever but physically we were the biggest in school. I was this size in the sixth grade and my younger brother's even taller than I am and in the fifth grade he was as big as he is now. But the following year when I went to junior high school, I was at the end of the line. You know, the Caucasian kids sprouted up and I was now the shortest guy. But in the sixth grade, I can still remember, you're the man, I was the man in school yet, you know. So marbles, she says she's played marbles, but I was the champ in school, marbles, we used to go to, you know in elementary school, take one marble, or not even take a marble, borrow a marble from some kid, and play chase, you know, win one, and then play rings, win two, go home with a pocket full of marbles, right? That was us. I remember, I guess I was in the sixth grade or something, and a kid from LA came to the school and he was the city champ, he claimed to be city champ, I played him one round, rings, took all his marbles. That's a true story. I still think I could play marbles. [Laughs] No, but getting back to athletics, I think, I don't know, my younger brother played football. I tried to play football in high school but I couldn't do it... too small, played JV. Baseball we played, in camp we played baseball. And in Tule Lake I was a manager of what would be considered today, little league, twelve years and younger. I'll tell you, the kids that I had then, I was probably fifteen, I was managing them, we could slaughter these kids these days, at twelve years old. They were fantastic players, at least what I thought in those days. [Laughs]

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2010 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.