<Begin Segment 2>

Masako H: What do you remember about your early family life?

Mae H: Well, I vaguely remember living behind the store my father had, and it was just a huge, large room, and we set up a table. And I remember as a youngster taking a bath in a huge round, what do you call those tubs, portable things with plastic toys floating around in the water. They call that celluloid, as I recall.

Masako H: Did you speak Japanese or English in your home?

Mae H: Well, naturally I spoke Japanese because that's what we spoke in the home. And eventually, I went to a grade school. I can't recall the name in Portland, but I walked to school. My mother took me. Do you remember, I wonder what the name of the school, downtown Portland, years ago?

Masako H: Did you go to Japanese school?

Mae H: That happened after I was already in high school. I went with a friend of mine, and we started probably in the second grade because we didn't know much about writing it. So we were, my friend and I were the oldest two pupils in class of, as you can imagine, little children, smaller children.

Masako H: Do you remember any of your teachers or who was part of that Japanese school?

Mae H: I can't remember the name at this moment.

Masako H: You mentioned a Mr. Matsui.

Mae H: He was the principal. And let's see, I just, right this moment, I can't remember, short name for the first teacher, and I knew the second, next grade, the children went to high school with me. It'll come back later. I can't think of it right now.

Masako H: Okay. What values do you think your parents taught you?

Mae H: Well, I think this was very, it was with all of the Issei immigrants how much education was important. It was just a given. You went to school, enter first grade. My mother took me. But in those days, I don't think she attended any parent/teacher meetings if they had them. But we just, we went to school. Most of us were pretty diligent students, I think, all the Niseis were, yeah.

Masako H: You told me you also lived on the east side near one of those restaurants, Tick Tock.

Mae H: Oh, yes. One of the first drive-ins that was ever built in Portland. It has a history, and they finally, I think they took it down. But we lived on, it would be straight across Burnside in, where Tick Tock was, must have been the intersection of Sandy, Burnside and down the street there went south/north. It had to be a place like that, busy, and we lived about two blocks east of it. And young people as they became teenagers all thought that was a wonderful place to drive to, get a hamburger and a milk shake.

Masako H: Did you attend church?

Mae H: Yeah. My neighbor across the street, they were members of Centenary Wilbur Methodist Church, and the daughter there took me with her. So I started at a pretty young age to go to Sunday school there.

Masako H: And the grade school you attended was Buckman?

Mae H: Buckman, yes, uh-huh.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2003 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.