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MR: What was it like when the Nisei children started school?

HY: When the Nisei children started school?

MR: Yeah.

HY: Well, okay. In Hood River, it was very different. For example, because I was next to the youngest, I had older siblings who spoke the language, who knew what school was all about, who'd already gone through before me, so it was pretty easy for me. But as I understand from my oldest brother, because he didn't know a word of English when he started when he was five for six years old, so I think he had an awful time, but he quickly caught up to speed. But for the first Nisei children, they had the same trouble, and my wife's oldest sister also, I'm told, she didn't know any English either when she first started school. So for the first year or two, it must have been quite difficult, learning the language and learning the rules, the behavior and so on. But at the same time, Margaret, we, including me, didn't know some of the proper social behavior because we were never taught this. See, my parents from Japan, the social behavior and the culture is different than the American culture, and they didn't know. They didn't learn that from their childhood. They had to learn that as adults, and that's very hard to do. So little things like asking permission to go to the bathroom and so on, in the Japanese family at home, we never did that, never asked for permission to go bathroom. You had to go, if you were eating, you just get up and go. You don't say, "Daddy, can I go to the bathroom?" Or in the classroom, you don't ask the teacher, "Teacher, I have to go." They don't do that. They just get up and go and so on. And I observed that when I was in my first grade, and boy I really had to go, but I didn't know where the bathroom was. I was getting more antsy, and pretty soon, I let it go on the floor. And my teacher, Mrs. Cornelius, she comes up and she goes, "Why didn't you say you had to go to the bathroom?" I didn't know where the toilet was. So Mrs. Cornelius sent me home. First day of school, first grade, I didn't know I was supposed to ask. I was too embarrassed and to bashful to ask, so I peed in my pants in my first day in school. That was awful. I still remember that. [Laughs]

MR: How was it to, when you were in school, how was it on the playground?

HY: Oh, well, the playground was generally pretty good. It was not real discriminatory because by that time, after, kids being what they are, after a while, they'll accept you for what you can provide and what you are. I mean, they knew we were different and so on, but after a while, you plan sides. And if you're a good athlete, well, sure, they're going to pick you first because they want to win. They want to be on the winning side. So the playground was, generally was not very difficult. It didn't, in my case, I was just a mediocre athlete, but I had some brothers that were good athletes; and of course, they were always picked first because they were good athletes. So that helped the fact that my, I had brothers who were very bright, and I had sisters who were very bright. That all helped me because they kind of paved the way for me. So you know, even if I was mediocre, I can, ride on their coattails a little, and that really helped. So that was me. I was a coattail rider.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2003 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.