<Begin Segment 6>

LT: How did you like school?

GT: Well, you know something, I had no idea if I liked it or not, but I knew it was something you had to do. I can't say I really liked it, or I didn't disagree with it, it's just part of life. But I don't remember it being a fun place. No, I don't remember it being a fun place. In fact, I think I was in the second or third grade, I was fooling around with some Caucasian boy and I broke my leg. That was a bad time because I know they took me into Portland for medical thing, instead of a doctor, they took me into Portland and I lived with some people there that I don't know how they got... it seemed like they did all the doctoring, because I remember them pulling my leg and this and that, and gee, those are times that it was really hurting. But I got cured there. I thought I'd be a cripple, but I did come out all right.

LT: So what do you remember about your classmates and the racial makeup of your class?

GT: Yeah. You know, at that time... well, you know, I don't know if it was much racial, but I do remember that there was a lot of, the word "Jap" was used a lot, it seemed like that was part of the language. Everything was "Jap" this and "Jap" that, but they used it quite readily. And at the time I didn't do anything about it, but as time went on, it started to be, become very annoying to hear that word "Jap." But as I went on to school, I seemed like I got along with all the kids real well. I don't remember ever getting gin a fight or anything about that. That's from the sixth, seventh and eighth grade, I got along real well with all the kids. Yeah, I'd say everything was all right.

LT: Did you have any other Japanese classmates?

GT: Later on in high school some more did enter, but a lot of these were left over from the berry farmers. But there was, when I was in high school there was a Inahara, Iwasaki, and I think there was another family of Kaga, K-A-G-A, Inagaki, there were some of those that did come to school, but at that time I didn't know any of them. I didn't associate with them or anything like that except Arthur. Even Dr. Inahara, all he did was study. All he did was study, and look what he turned out to be, a doctor. That'll serve him right. [Laughs] But Dr. Inahara really became a famous doctor with the St. Vincent Hospital. He went on to become quite a doctor. I remember one time it was told that he practically ran the whole sixth floor of the St. Vincent because those were all his patients. And I remember at that time, anybody smoked, we could never, ever be a patient of his because he detested smoking. He knew that it was no good for you and they still say the same thing today, only more so. But I do know that if you smoked, he didn't want to be, he didn't want you to come to him for any help because he didn't want touch you because you smoked. Except my wife. I can't believe it, but Dr. Inahara did take care of my wife. I'm trying to figure out what she was treated for, but he knew that she smoked, but I think she was the only one he exempted from being his patient. And she smoked, and she told me one time, she said, "I'm never going to quit, so don't try to tell me to stop smoking because I'm never going to quit." And Dr. Inahara knew this, too, so I think being friends, I think took us all, took her on, too. But yeah, I think she was the only patient he ever had that smoked that he took care of.

LT: You talked about how with your Caucasian classmates, there were times when you would hear the word "Jap." Do you remember how it was used, and I'm wondering if there were other incidents where you felt some challenges in terms of your being Japanese American and being very much the minority in your class?

GT: All my friends and the people I knew, they had never used that word. It would be those that parents were people that I didn't even know that didn't like Japanese, and they probably used it at home and the kids used that at home, and then they... but my friends, I've never heard that use that word towards me, never. And I had quite a few friends, become friends with my... let's see, I go back to, well, like we played sports together, I had a lot of friends that played sports, but it was always never, ever heard the word "Jap." They respected me and didn't, I didn't differ from anybody else to them.

LT: In fact, when you were in high school, you received an honor.

GT: That was for basketball. And when I think about basketball, I think back to the size of our, as a team. You know, you got kids in the fourth grade about that big now. I have a granddaughter who teaches kids, and she's not very tall, but she's got students that are taller than she is, and that's the fourth grade, you know. And I get a kick out of it because a lot of times they don't know which one's a teacher and who's a student, my granddaughters tell me about it, so funny. But when I was playing basketball, I was about 5'4", I think that's the tallest I got. And I guess he was about 5'6", and then the back court was about 5'7", couple 5'7" boys, and then we had a boy that was about 5'10", we thought he was pretty darn big until the senior year. A kid moved in there and he was six-foot tall, played center for us. But we thought he was a giant. We'd never seen a kid that big that came to Hillsboro. [Laughs] So he fit right in, and that year, I think it was my junior year, no, my senior year, there was awards given out for sports, this and that, they gave it to me, I guess, because they must have felt sorry for me. Because the other kids all won their trophies, but I'm the only one that hadn't had one yet, so they probably gave it to me. It's just the respect for me, and because it seemed like all my friends all had their trophies, and I hadn't had one yet, so they probably gave it to me, and I think that's the reason.

LT: But you were also selected for a club.

GT: Oh, it was an exclusive club called the Senate Club. And there was two from each class, and you had to be voted in unanimously. And I think in my junior year or sophomore year, I was voted in, and I felt myself quite a guy, because just to join that club, you had to be quite the guy. [Laughs]

LT: So two out of your class were selected, out of a class of a hundred, and you were selected for the Senate Club?

GT: Yes, that's what they called it.

LT: That's an honor.

GT: Yeah, it was an honor at that time because it was an exclusive club. Just anybody couldn't join that, you had to be voted in. I remember one, the highlight of our year was we had a, we'd go to some country club, and that was quite the thing because I had find a shirt and a tie, I think. I didn't even know how to wear one in those days. But I do remember that one year that I had no way of getting there. And I borrowed a car, and it was a brand-new car, and there was a girl, she was in the sophomore age, and their folks run the country club as the golf club out there. So that was probably the first date I ever had, was I took her out to the Senate thing. We went to the, out there in the Columbia River right now, I don't know what they call it, but there was quite an exclusive nightclub out there. But that was quite the thing.

LT: Congratulations.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2013 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.