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RN: But there are discrimination because when I was in the first grade, when I went there, my father brought me. He misspelled my Japanese name. It's N-O-B-U-K-O, but I put C-O in there. But he spelled it N-O-B-I-C-O, and he didn't tell them my American name. But that's what they called me in grade school. Miss Sherman was ready to retire. We didn't have, they retire because they have like 1-A, 1-B. She was very friendly toward me, helped me so I could learn English quickly. And when we had recess, I was the tiniest child in the school, so the older girls would take me and they play house. They would lay me on the cold concrete and say, "You're the baby." So I tried to rise up. They push me down, said, "No, you're the baby," so I laid there on the cold concrete. So she finally heard about it. So during the recess, she kept me in the room with her. She allowed me to draw things on the blackboard, and she talked to me so my English would be better, and I think she made me her special charge. So to this day, I remember her kindness, and I never forgot it. But when she retired, I used to go to school, then I look and I see Miss Brown there, and I felt very sad because I felt quite lonely, and Miss Brown was totally different from Miss Sherman. She asked the children there because at that time, there, I guess the Japanese at that time so she, Miss Brown asked the children one morning, she said, "How many of you like Japanese? How many of you don't like Japanese?" That was very cruel. Here I'm only six years old. I felt that discrimination. There's nothing I could do, but the tears run down my cheeks, so I went home. When I went home, I told my mother I'm never going back to that school again. She said, "Well, how are you going to learn to read if you don't?" So I wanted to read very badly, so I did return. But luckily, I had her only for half a year because it's one year and it's divided into a and b, cut into half.

Miss Sherman, I kept thinking about her. And Miss Sherman one day came to school to see how the children were doing, and she called me. I know she came to see me. She missed me as much as I missed her. So we were lining up to go to recess. She said, "Nobiko, come here." And she looked at Miss Brown and said, "Nobiko is a very good girl," because I used to get up every morning help her clean the erasers for her to put on the blackboard. And the reason I did that was when I went home, I told my mother Miss Sherman is named after a salmon. See, I thought it was fish. And my mother, then I told her she's stooped and she has gray hair. My mother looked at me and said, "She got those gray, gray hair from looking after and teaching all you kids, so you respect every strand of her hair." At that time, I took my mother very seriously. So when I walked to school back and forth, I thought how could I show my respect to her? Well, I decide I go early in the morning and clean erasers for her, so I did that every morning. And Miss Sherman never knew the reason why I did it. It was my mother, but she appreciated it more. But she was really, I'm glad I had her for my first year in school, first half year in school. She gave me a very good feeling about school, and I missed her so badly that I never felt much love for anyone beyond my mother. But I decided, well, I love her next to my mother. So when she came and called me to her, we're not thought to be demonstrative as the Caucasian, but I was so happy to see her. I hugged her around her around her knees and hoped that she would return. But that was the last I ever saw of her. She never came back.

And the next teacher I had was named Miss Wandalick. She was very nice. She heard about me from Miss Sherman, so she was very nice to me. And because of that, I learned very quickly. And so one day, she had a green apple. I think it must have been Newton. And she said, "Nobiko, I have something for you." She handed me the green apple. I said, "No, thank you," because my mother had told me green apples make you sick. So I went home and told my mother what had happened. She said, "Why didn't you accept it?" I said, "You told me that green apples make you sick. That's why I didn't accept it." Well, my mother couldn't say anything. But I had very some nice teachers.

Another teacher I like was very known for, very good teacher. She was at Portmouth, and her name was Miss Dickie. I met her when she had just I suppose graduated from the teaching school. Anyway, so we were all sitting down wondering who our next teachers could be because most of our teachers were middle age. Well, she came into the room. She had creamy skin. She had black hair waved against her cheeks. She was very pretty, and she had a slightly tilted nose, a perky look. So when I saw her, I just spontaneously said, "Oh, we have a pretty young teacher," like that, and she looks at me and sort of smiled. And I really worked very hard in her room.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2004 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.