<Begin Segment 3>

SG: So you mentioned that you started elementary school close by?

GA: Yes.

SG: And were there other Japanese kids that went to the elementary school?

GA: Very few. There was only a handful. Most of them were Caucasians.

SG: And in the neighborhood as well, were there not many Japanese families?

GA: No, very few. In fact, I don't remember any in those days. I remember a Chinese family across the street from us. Oh, yes, there was another Japanese grocery store a block away.

SG: So was your family friends with the owners of the other grocery --

GA: Yes, yes. We competed on a friendly basis.

SG: I had a question about actually working in the grower store. How did, did you use a cash register, pencil and paper, or an abacus to add the prices up?

GA: No, we did not use abacus. Most of the time, it was pencil and paper. And then of course later on, modern cash registers came along where you press the price of each item. Of course, you get the total that way. But at first, it was just paper and pencil.

SG: And do you remember the hours that the store operated?

GA: Well, the store hours were very long, six in the morning till about eight or nine at night. We spent long hours at the store.

SG: And that was just having the store open?

GA: Yes.

SG: So there's more work before and after?

GA: Well, no. Once we closed the store, that was it. Our store at first was one of these types of buildings that had canvas, canvas front, so you'd roll up the canvas to open the store and roll it down, drop it in the evening, and you'd have chains to run down the sides of the canvas to lock it up for the night, you know. So once we locked up, that was it for that day. Most of the work was done while the store was open.

SG: Did your parents ever while they were running the store, from customers or from the neighborhood, feel any discrimination because they were Japanese?

GA: No, not in those days. If there was discrimination, they would not come to us so we would not know. I didn't feel any, I didn't notice any kind of discrimination in those days. Later on after the war started, of course there was. But in those early days, there was none as far as I can remember.

SG: And how was the elementary school in that way?

GA: I felt no discrimination. I went from the first grade to the eighth grade in grammar school and I don't remember any discrimination.

SG: Were most of your friends Japanese or were they white?

GA: Ninety-nine percent of my friends were Caucasian people. And the picture changed, the picture of the area changed after World War II. But before World War II, there were few blacks. But now, it's the center of the black population in that area.

SG: So before World War II, it was mostly Caucasian families?

GA: Yes, yes.

SG: Did you find any, growing up with mostly Caucasian, that there was any misunderstandings between cultures?

GA: I don't recall any. No, I just don't recall. We got along fine, and I had some good friends among the Caucasians. Later on after I got into high school, the element of girls entered in, you know, so that's when I started going out with the Japanese people not in the neighborhood but in the city because it was easier to obtain dates from Japanese girls than Caucasian girls.

SG: Why was that, do you know?

GA: Pardon me?

SG: Why, do you know why it was easier to date Japanese girls?

GA: Gosh, I don't know. I don't, I don't ever remember being refused. I used to have a crush on a Caucasian girl, but I never got very far with her.

SG: Do you remember her name?

GA: Pardon me?

SG: Do you remember her name?

GA: Yes, Desdemona. Yeah, I remember her name very well. Those were my, maybe the third or fourth or fifth grade, something like that.

SG: What was a typical day like for you when you were in elementary school?

GA: Well, first of all, we lived in a house away from the grocery store about two blocks, but my mother would always be cooking in the store rather than the house because she had to work in the store, so we would always go to the store to eat, eat our meals. So therefore, we'd go to the store to eat breakfast, go to school, and come back for lunch to the store again, back to school and back to the store after school. And the evening meals were also at the store, so the house was primarily just to sleep.

SG: When did you do your studying?

GA: Of course, in grammar school, I didn't, there was not much homework. After I got to high school, I studied mostly in the store because the store was open 'til about 9 o'clock at night, and therefore, I would study from like six to nine or something like that.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2003 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.