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JK: I'm going to talk now about your childhood. You said you had a sister Minnie. Was she older than you or younger?

AO: She was two years older than I was. At the time when we grew up, we lived out in Montavilla as I mentioned, so we did not know many of the downtown north end or south end Japantown people. So we were sort of isolated from the Japanese community. Most of my friends were hakujin friends. There were a few Japanese families that lived out in the Montavilla-Troutdale-Gresham area that we knew, but they were few and far between. Most of my friendships, as I say, were with the hakujins. Also, my dad took me downtown to the YMCA, and he got me to be a member of the YMCA, downtown YMCA group, and so I had a lot of friends, mostly all hakujin friends, at the downtown YMCA, the one on Sixth and Taylor.

JK: What kind of activities did you do as a young person when you were out in Montavilla?

AO: We had a basketball team of all the kids my age. We didn't play much football or baseball, mostly basketball, 'cause that was probably the easiest sport to play without equipment. So I think that was the primary thing that kept us going. Also, in Montavilla, there was a park present, so we used to go to the park and play a little bit there.

JK: And so your basketball team was mostly hakujins?

AO: Yes.

JK: And did you move from Montavilla?

AO: Yes. When I became high school age, we moved to, close to Washington High School, 17th and Ankeny, which is right next, one street over from Burnside street on the east side. But it was within walking distance of Washington High School, so we went to school there.

JK: Were there... what was the population like at Washington? Were there Japanese there?

AO: There were a few. Again, only a few. Most of my friends there also were hakujins.

JK: And what kind of activities did you continue to pursue or start up there?

AO: I played basketball, continued to play basketball there. I managed to play on the Washington junior basketball team, not the major, the regular team, but the junior team. And then I took up the sport of table tennis. And so I played a lot of table tennis and got to be pretty adequate as far as that's concerned.

JK: Did you move again, or was that your...

AO: No.

JK: Okay.

AO: We lived there on 17th Avenue.

JK: How did your family decide to move to Montavilla and then to the Washington High School area?

AO: I don't know. Of course, my sister and I were both very young at the time, so I don't know why, other than the fact that my father probably figured that since we were growing up, that it would be better to go closer in to town and take some part in the Japanese community activities, which I did. I became a member of the Troop 123, which was the Boy Scouts, Japanese Boy Scout troop, and I participated in the Japanese community's basketball group. They had a regular league of basketball players, and played every Sunday at Peninsula Park.

JK: And so this is how your family helped to keep you involved with the Japanese community?

AO: Yes.

JK: And did you do other things besides, did you go to Japanese school?

AO: Oh, in Montavilla there was a Japanese school in Russellville, and we went to school there in the evening, three times a week, Monday-Wednesday-Friday. So I was exposed to the Japanese language and Japanese teaching. Dr. Nakata, the dentist, was one of our teachers in Montavilla.

JK: So what was the curriculum mostly focused on? To have the ability to do conversational Japanese or to read and write?

AO: Reading and writing. I remember one story, there was one fellow named Aki Makino, who lived out in Montavilla close to where we lived. And during the annual recital time, he was supposed to sing a song. And the song is "Haru ga Kita," which means, "Spring is Here." And he started to sing that song, instead of saying, "Haru ga kita," he said, "Saru ga kita," and saru in Japanese is "monkey." [Laughs] And so when he got by the first line, the whole audience broke up. It was quite an interesting recital at that time.

JK: Did you have a part in the recital, too?

AO: Yes, but I don't remember... I had nothing funny happen like that, so I don't remember much about my participation.

JK: Did you live in houses when you were growing up?

AO: Yes, just regular houses.

JK: Uh-huh. What do you remember about them?

AO: Oh, I used to do a lot of shoveling of coal and hauling wood, because all we had was potbellied stoves in the Montavilla area. And then, of course, we moved into, by Washington High School, we had a regular wood furnace. So I still had to handle wood, the heating went much easier.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2013 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.