<Begin Segment 14>

SG: So what was high school like for you, Mr. Ouchida?

BO: Huh?

SG: What was high school like for you, going to high school here, an American high school?

BO: Yeah.

SG: What was that like? What was your experience like?

BO: You mean go to Gresham High School? That's where I went. There's a difference in class. We're low class people, I guess, and hakujins all, we were kind of free, I mean they were kind of free, and we were kind of tied down. We only could do certain things because of the order that the parents gave us, you know. You got to do this and come home, no horse around. You get in trouble. We all came home.

[Interruption]

SG: So it seems we were talking Gresham High School. So what was, describe going, what was it like going to Gresham High?

BO: Oh, Gresham High, the bus was a lot of fun. But the high school itself, well, they say you better take agriculture, so I took future farmer, but future farmer says that you got to have an acre of this project, but Dad never gave us any acreage that I could take for a project and keep record of it. So I got caught on that and a lot of things. Folks don't understand what we have to have in the school course. But it was, biology and stuff was very interesting. I liked it just like algebra or geometry. But history or literature, I don't know. I don't know who could understand literature and half of it Latin, so I flunked that. I'm not ashamed of it. [Laughs]

SG: You said your parents had a hard time understanding what was going on in school for you?

BO: Well, they weren't interested in that or they can't even help us. We didn't have electric light. We had to use a gas mantle, mantle light, open up. We had that kind of light. And later on, we finally got the electric light, but it was hard studying at home. But that's only four years.

SG: Did you play sports?

BO: Huh?

SG: Did you play sports at the high school?

BO: No. We didn't have time to play sports. Mom wants me hurry up come home and got to do this, do that, so I always came home. Even though I have to hitchhike and beat the bus, I used to do that and get home, then load up and head to the Pacific Fruit and dump it there and see how much, what we can get out of that. I used to drive to town. I would like to have done the sports, but I don't know. We didn't get a chance because we were doing the kendo and judo, sumo at a time, but kendo and judo.

SG: What sport would you have liked to played?

BO: Oh, I don't know. You ask me now.

SG: Or back then, what sport did you want to play in high school?

BO: Well, see, we used to play soccer or softball, stuff like that in grade school. But when it comes to high school, oh, no more. You forget all about it and come home. It's survival, big family, but we did it. If we didn't do it, we'd be the laughing stock on the, among the Japanese race, because they always look at each other, and they start laughing. Although my dad always -- certain family was suffering this and that, he would go down and try to help them out, but I didn't see anybody come and help us out.

SG: What was your relationship like with the students at your high school?

BO: Come again now?

SG: How was your relationship with the other students at Gresham High School?

BO: Oh, among the students, we used to have a lot of fun as long as they just study or anything like that or horsing around. There was a lot of horsing around, in class or you get caught. But I used to like to go in the library and sit and study over there where it is much peaceful where you can't even whisper and take some books out, things like that, lost in the high school instead of going to the study room.

SG: Did you, were you able to make friends at Gresham High School?

BO: Yeah, friends, we had lots of friends, all kinds. The boys are all friendly, play around, but we're tied at home, you know. You can't... financial and all that, and they didn't give us spending money or anything like that, so you were tied down. So naturally, you got to behave and go home.

SG: Were there a lot of Japanese kids at Gresham High School?

BO: Yeah, it started getting quite a bit, quite a few, smart one too. You think that they just sit there and study, but they're really smart. I don't know if you know Matt Fujimoto. He passed away earlier, but he was almost a perfect student in grades. All the rest, boy, real smart. I don't know if they're acting smart or they're actually smart.

SG: Were most of your friends Japanese?

BO: No, no. We're more favored toward the hakujin, more white. In grade school, we're all white, around the white, so yeah. Japanese though, the only thing is kendo and judo or Japanese school. But other than that, we don't mingle. But the hakujin, we make friends any time.

SG: So the white people treated you and your family pretty well?

BO: Yes, yes. Of course, they didn't welcome into the house or anything like that. It's like a second-class race, I guess, but we didn't want to be bothered, bother them either. I don't know which one comes first, but we didn't go in there. But their families were real nice. But our family, too many kids anyway, so, and out in the country, so they didn't think to come and visit us.

SG: Is there anything else you remember, your experience in going to Gresham High?

BO: I took Gresham High because, just because I can't have no cooperation at home, have to flunk a class or this and that. But naturally, the literature, I can't understand that because I can't do that lingo they use. But the rest of it, geometry or any of those science, boy, I'm right at the top. But some of those subjects, I can't have because I didn't pass this one or that one. They won't let me have it. It kind of makes me sorry, but I did my best. And they all come in handy when you go, after you finish high school, you know. You could use them. So I always said like history, it's nice to know, but gee, who wants to know about the people that already passed away? It's better to learn something they did if they're living, you know. That's what I hate about history. And I always ask, wondered how come like the Civil War, why don't they come out with a map? It's a certain day, you know. This general did this or this general did that, and then draw the picture how they progressed and who won the war. They don't have that. You had to just read it. Well, that's pretty hard, just read and figure out where they're at. Where's Saratoga at? Chattanooga. Is it in Georgia or, there's two Chattanooga, things like that. That's what used to get me in history. History [inaudible]. So I have a tape. It says north and south. The thing says north and south, the battlefield, kind of late but I got a tape. One of these days, they're going to show it in a group here, movie group.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2004 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.