<Begin Segment 4>

MK: You went to elementary school when you were a child.

CE: I went to an elementary school.

MK: Was that co-ed?

CE: Yes, it was co-ed. I went to a girls' school after that. That was in 1919.

MK: How many years did you spend at the girls' school?

CE: Four years at the girls' school back then.

MK: Six years at the elementary school.

CE: Yes.

MK: And four more years in the girls school after that.

CE: Yes.

MK: Ten years all together.

CE: Yes, I received a letter from the girls' school last year and found out it opened for boys and girls starting this April.

MK: It is a co-ed school now.

CE: Yes. I heard that it is not only for girls any more.

MK: Was your elementary school co-ed?

CE: Yes.

MK: The girls' school was not. When you went to the girls' school, did you have classes like sewing and cooking?

CE: Yeah, those were the main classes, and flower arrangement too. We also had some elective classes like tea ceremony and Japanese archery. We were able to choose what we liked. And English...

MK: Some hobby classes were included in the main curriculum.

CE: No, they were separate.

MK: Did you wear kimono when you started to go to the elementary school as a young child?

CE: Yes, everybody was wearing kimono. We had uniforms to wear when I was in the girls' school. It was a striped cotton kimono. Girls had been competing against each other about what to wear before the uniform was introduced. Everyone was trying to dress up. Girls from poor families were not able to attend the school. Uniforms were introduced to offer equal learning opportunities to poor children. [Laughs] We all went on a trip to visit the Ise Shrine at the fourth grade at the girls' school. We were told that we might not have a chance to do it after we get married. We visited the shrine while we were still students so we would not have to feel regret when we get married. I came over here to the U.S. after the trip to the Ise Shrine.

MK: Did you travel to Ise from Fukushima by train?

CE: Yes. By train. My class was divided between the east and west, and there were a total of one hundred students.

MK: It was a school trip.

CE: Yes, school trip. We went to Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and all the way to Ise.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2003 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.