<Begin Segment 5>

LT: Well, in 1934, your father died. How old were you and what was the impact on your family?

GT: Okay, I was born in '21. I was about thirteen, fourteen years old. I was just maybe about eighth grade in the grade school or about ready to go into high school I think. But yes, it was a tough time because Mom had to take over the business, seven kids, she could not speak, or very little of the English, and she had an awful, awful time. We got to the point one time that one time when I was, I was thirteen, fourteen years old, I used to drive her into Portland to pick up produce for the store. And that was quite an experience, being only thirteen, fourteen years old, driving this pickup. But Mom always convinced me that as long as she was sitting beside me, it's completely all right. "Police cannot touch you," she said. And she had me believing that. I did that for many years, probably until I was about sixteen and I finally got my license. But up to that point it was either myself or my older brothers, we used to drive her in without legal license. But we did that quite a bit, that was the only way she can get around. But she always convinced us that as long as Mom's sitting here, they can't touch you. Everything's legal. [Laughs] She had me believing that sometimes.

LT: What a challenge. Because your mother, as you say, didn't speak English, your customers spoke English, you were in school. How did your family survive? What kinds of sacrifices did you make?

GT: Well, let's see. When Dad died I was about thirteen, fourteen. First of all, I had an older sister, she was about fifteen and my older brother about sixteen then. They helped out an awful lot there. I do know that it interfered with the schooling, everything, but they did help out a lot. But Mom in a few years did pick up that language pretty darn fast, and how to buy things and stuff like this. So she did learn fast, but I have to hand it to her, I don't know how she did it, but I do know that going into Portland like that, stuff like that, she was pretty good at buying things, and how to barter. I could just see her. Especially if we went to the fish market, I don't know why it was there, but I remember about twenty-five cents worth of fish could feed the whole family. That's after she got through bartering with the owner. Yeah, so I'm sure it was my sister and my older brother and myself, that the three of us helped out an awful lot to help her with that store. We had to work there quite a bit.

LT: It definitely sounds like that. Let's talk about school. Your parents spoke mostly Japanese at home. When you went to grade school, what language did you speak?

GT: You know, let's see. Well, of course, I started right from the, probably the first grade right there. That's right, I did, I started right from first grade there in Hillsboro, and I can still remember the name of the school was David Douglas was the name of the school, and I'm sure that's where I learned English. But I do remember there was a time when my older brother, who had no knowledge of everything, all we heard was he himself, being in the first, second grade, he could even hardly speak English, I do remember that. Because he had an awful time to learn that because it was all Japanese. And then when he got into grade school, he didn't hardly know any English, but he learned fast. But there was a time when he had an awful time, I don't see how he passed his grades, but he did it.

LT: So did he teach you?

GT: Well, I think I learned most of 'em at school, though, yeah, I think so.

LT: Okay.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2013 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.