<Begin Segment 4>

LT: Well, let's talk about school, because you were raised in a family where your mother and your father both spoke Japanese at home. So did you speak Japanese with your mother and father and your brothers at home?

JH: I think I did. My dad knew a little English, so it kind of helped.

LT: Okay. And how did your dad learn English?

JH: I don't, I really don't know, but he knew English fairly well.

LT: Okay. So when you went to school, the classes were in English. Did you learn English, did you already know English? What was it like to go to first grade?

JH: It just, it seemed just natural that we would speak English there. And at home we would speak Japanese, but once we left for school, none of us ever spoke Japanese together. When we ate lunch or anything, it was all English.

LT: Okay. Well, how did you like school?

JH: It was fine.

LT: What did you like about it? What were your favorites?

JH: Oh, gosh, I don't know. I don't know one subject that I enjoyed more than the other.

LT: Was there anything that you didn't like?

JH: Not really.

LT: Okay. Now, at school, were there other Japanese Americans? What was the makeup of your class?

JH: There was myself, and then Willie Sato, and Mieko, and Michiko and Rose. There were five of us in our class.

LT: And there were about fifteen all together in your class?

JH: Yes, there was quite a few of them, I think.

LT: Okay, so about one third of the students in your classroom were Japanese Americans, Nisei. What was it like at school to have Japanese American classmates and Caucasian classmates?

JH: It was fine, except we ate, the four or five of us Japanese would eat lunch together 'cause we would all bring onigiri and Japanese type food. So we thought, well, we shouldn't be eating amongst the others, but they'd come by and say, "What are you guys eating?" We'd show it to 'em, and it didn't seem to bother them.

LT: So can you talk about onigiri and what it is, and other items that you ate for lunch?

JH: We'd... usually onigiri, and then we'd have like radish inside of the onigiri, or umeboshi, which is plum. And then we'd take okazu that was left from the night before.

LT: Okay, and okazu is...

JH: Cooked vegetables.

LT: And onigiri is...

JH: Rice balls.

LT: Did you make the rice balls, or did your mom?

JH: Mom, my mom made them.

LT: Okay, okay. So you all ate together because you were eating food that was similar. What about your classmates who were surprised by what you ate? Did you look at what they were eating?

JH: No, uh-uh. They were through eating, and then they'd come by and see what we were eating.

LT: Oh, okay. So you ate separately from your other classmates. Were there other things that you did separately at school?

JH: No, uh-uh.

LT: And then what did you do all together?

JH: We did not do much of anything together because then we'd mix in with our classmates and do different things. Like one of my friends would play tennis, and one was a very good baseball player. And the ones like myself and Mieko, we kind of watched to see what they're doing. We weren't that sport.

LT: Okay, was there ever an issue that there were Japanese Americans and other classmates? Did you ever get treated differently besides asking questions?

JH: No, we sure didn't.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2014 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.