<Begin Segment 8>

AC: You said you went to the vegetable market as a fourteen-, fifteen-year-old and you're dealing with all these men, these sharpies, as you called 'em --

JS: I got worse words than that, but...

AC: Yeah. What did you learn from all that experience?

JS: Well, I don't know if I learned anything, really. Well, I'll take that back. I guess I learned more the facts of life of business, so I was ahead of my generation generally, at my age group, in my knowledge of what made the world go around. But I don't know whether that prepared me for life any better than those who went through school. I don't, I really don't think it did. But it was a fact of life; it was a part of, a necessary thing that happened in our lives. And as I've looked around through the years at people my age, most of them were able to finish high school at least, and I think it was, and it was good that they could because that forms a part of your background that somehow, you don't have to know everything, but if you, or you don't have to know a specialty. Up through the years it's been this way, anyway, that if you had a high school education you had enough basic knowledge of what makes society work and how to react to people. As compared to today that, if you don't learn something beyond social studies, why, it's a tough life. Of course, social studies weren't a fact of life much then when we, when I was growing up. ABCs were very important. Course, to an old fellow like me, they're still important, that you ought to learn some basic, have some basic knowledge, and I think our schools are going back to that. It should be to try to include more of that into your social studies. 'Cause my children grew up learning that social studies was a good way to make it through without really having come to any conclusions. [Laughs]

AC: Do you regret not finishing high school?

JS: Pardon me?

AC: Do you regret not finishing high school?

JS: Well, I can't say I regret it. I wish I could have. But I didn't take my GED either, after I came home from service; I could've taken it through the college here. But I served the first twelve years of the community college here, and apparently I was qualified that the professors of the college just gave me an Associate of Science -- I guess it was Associate; they have two, science and art -- Associate of Science to me. I have that. I don't know if it's worth anything; I never tried to use it. But I, in retrospect, I could say that, I could rationalize to say, well, I really haven't lost anything by not having finished school, because I learned how to contribute in other ways, and I've done really very well. I've not done very well financially, probably, but in doing what I wanted in the community I've really accomplished everything I wanted to in life in this respect. That's another area that we're getting into, because that's why, what I've, what has happened to me since I came out of the military is probably the most important, to me is the most important part of my life.

AC: So how do you spell your, your father and mother's names? Just out of curiosity.

JS: Last name?

AC: No, your, the first names, and last names.

JS: How do I spell them?

AC: No, who, what are, what were their names?

JS: My dad's name was Yoshikichi, my mother's name was Hiro Kurotsu. Kurotsu was her maiden name. I don't know much about my folks, really. My wife and I went to Japan once, and we saw some of her people down in Kumamoto, and I, we spent time together up in Fukushima, both on my mother's side and my dad's side. And for some reason I enjoyed it while I was there but I after I came home, why, I just didn't know how to bring those people into my life. And I think my wife would like to go back to Japan again, but she has hardly any relatives left. I have some, I have some relatives left, both on my mother's and my dad's side, but I don't, I don't particularly have a desire... I've always felt like my mission was here at home, and what I can do, like in sister city groups or things like that, I've never become involved in that. My main objective in life, after I came out of service, was use the record of the 442nd and my buddies that gave their all and to improve the situation of our people in this nation.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2004 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.