<Begin Segment 6>

AC: Let's go back to your schooling. Do you remember any of your teachers?

MH: I do. I remember the principal of my grade school, and I used to go visit her, and she used to come to our house too. And I might, might interject this. When we go back to class reunion, I come clear from Ontario to Hood River which is quite a ways, and some of my classmates who lived in Hood River, I'm talking about the Niseis, did not come. And so some of my friends would say, "Do you think Mary didn't come because she was evacuated and she felt like she was discriminated?" And I said, "No. I think she's just lazy." But when we were evacuated, they had no idea. I mean, they didn't have no feeling about this evacuation. But after all those years when we went back to class reunion, I was asked that question. And of course, they'd say we were sorry, of course. It's something in the past.

AC: So when you were going to school, did you feel that tension from school?

MH: No, not when I was going to school. I, of course, in those days, us Niseis, we didn't date too much, and so no, I didn't feel no discrimination while I was going to school. But after the war, there was a lot of incidents.

AC: You didn't date very much because of why?

MH: Well, it would be, if I did, it would be a Nisei boy, but they're so shy. [Laughs] In fact, when he mentioned George Akiyama, his brother, Akiyama and my name is Asahi, so it's in the A's. He sat right here, but we hardly talked. You know, it was different those days. Nowadays, we visit and everything, but I don't know about you people, but anyway.

AC: Well, tell me more about how it was back then?

MH: I participated in sports. I always played tennis, and I was on the basketball team and got pretty good grades. In fact, my family all had pretty good grades I would say, and I still feel my children had good grades. I don't know whether you want me to talk about my children or not. Shall I do it now?

AC: As you like.

MH: Okay. I have son and a daughter. My son is in Sacramento, and he is a OB/GYN. My daughter is a manager of REI. I don't know if you know that place in Redmond, Washington. And I just visited her over Thanksgiving, and she had completed thirty-year anniversary. I said, "Arlene," I said, "has it been that long?" And she said, "Yeah, I started in twenty-two, when I was twenty-two," and so fifty-two, she's fifty-two now. So of course, that's a, she feels she works for a real good company, and she's still at it. Both of my kids went to Weiser High School. We lived on the Oregon Slope. I don't know if you know it's north of Ontario, and they were sent to Weiser High School. And my son was a valedictorian, and my daughter was a salutatorian, so they did, they did good. Of course, when they bring their report cards home, Dad's got to have his laurels, and Mom's got to get her laurels, but we both were very proud of them.

AC: I'm curious going back to when you were in school and you said you had this Nisei boy sitting next to you. What did you do to let him know that you liked him or --

MH: Well, I didn't have that feeling. He has a service station in Hood River now. So every time I go, I drive, I don't go there very often, but I always gas up at his place. But he's never there. He has helpers there, but I go to Nobi's.

AC: I was thinking more about all the Nisei women who were in the community there. How did you let the boys know that you were interested in them?

MH: There were, there was very few of us that really... we just didn't, we just didn't mix. We know, I know he was in my class or he was in the class above us, but we never had the personal feeling.

AC: And you didn't date outside of the community?

MH: No. The only time I got to go to dances, they used to have dances, and my brothers, older brothers would go, so Dad would let me go, so we went to dances and that, we danced but just for fun. I was kind of lucky to go because a lot of the girls couldn't go. But because I had brothers that go, Dad would let me go with them.

AC: So all the other Nisei girls who didn't have brothers who went to the dance, they couldn't go?

MH: They couldn't go, huh-uh. You know, the parents were quite strict those days.

AC: So what else do you remember from your school days? What is your fondest memory from school?

MH: High school? Grade school? I studied hard, and I don't know. We had, we went every day and did our stuff.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2004 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.