<Begin Segment 2>

MH: I'm going to go back again. When you came back from Japan, you probably were ready for elementary school. What elementary school did you go to?

LS: There was a small school, Russellville School which is not there any longer. And I was about eight and my sister was six, and we were both put in first grade. But she put me in the second grade immediately, and so I missed first grade.

MH: Did you speak English in your home or Japanese?

LS: Mother taught me English songs she had learned when she was working with the American Mission in Tokyo when she went to college, and I learned different songs from her. And also at that time, they started a kindergarten school in the Montavilla area. There was a Mr. Nakano. She, he had an American wife, and they had all the kindergarten equipment, blocks and sandboxes, and kindergarten was quite a thing for younger children. There he taught English for a while to help us with homework. But eventually after a time, parents figured that we better know Japanese, and so we, they taught Japanese school there.

MH: Can you remember any other songs that your mother taught you? Could you sing any of them?

LS: She... yes. [Sings] I went to the county fair, the bees and the beasts were there. The bing, the boom, the light of the moon was combing its auburn hair. The monkey, he got drunk along the elephant's trunk. Well, I forgot the rest of the song. My mother had good memories, and she taught a lot of things. Also, the Japanese song in the Mikado, Miya-san, Miya-san, she taught us that in Japanese.

MH: And when you went to Japanese school, were there a large population of Japanese where you lived?

LS: There was a community of small farmers in Montavilla area, oh, maybe about eight different families, and people from Gresham also came to join us in the Japanese school, so we had a good group. We had Mr. and Mrs. Fukuda who taught us also reading, writing, also shuuji, and we did a lot of things. Oh, during recess we played softball. Those balls are hard, and I ruined both my little fingers on them. [Laughs]

MH: Where did you go to high school?

LS: The district did not have high school, so we were chosen to go wherever we wanted to. My brother was able to drive, and so he drove to Franklin High School and all of us. He went through four years at Franklin High School, and I also graduated from Franklin High School, my sister, Mary, and Hood too. And of course, by the time Woodrow graduated, Hood was able to drive, so we drove to school every day. There's another family who wanted, a girl who wanted to go to Franklin High School, and we picked her up and commuted together.

MH: What did you do for entertainment at home?

LS: Well, we played tennis. We played, when we were at Japanese school, we played softball with the tennis racquet and ruined the tennis racquet. [Laughs] I learned to swim when I was about fifth grade at Buckman School pool. It was Ruth Cowinol who took me there for the first time, and I learned to swim then. And if we wanted to see a movie, we had to walk a mile and a half over to Montavilla to see a movie. Occasionally, Mother found programs, and we went to see the King of Kings. She insisted we go to see this. She wanted the children to see that, and there were other things that she heard of, and we went as a family.

MH: Did you ever go see Japanese movies?

LS: I'm afraid not. Mother might have. Oh, yes, when, there was a concert, Fujiwara, Yoshi or something. It was a great tenor singer. We went to see, hear him, and he was a Japanese native, and also Michio Ito was a dancer, and we went to his dancing concert. And well, oh, yes, the Japanese schoolchildren had a picnic, and we did racing and other things.

MH: When you were going to grade school and high school, did you, was there a lot of racial prejudice that you could remember?

LS: Not that I know of except once. As a senior, there was a swim party and I went, but I was not allowed to swim, and I felt very bad. My friends were in the pool, and they were all so sympathetic with me. I cried all night I'm afraid, but that was the only incident.

MH: So your friends were Caucasian mostly, and were you ever invited into their homes?

LS: There were not many Nikkei people in high school then; there were very few. Agnes Hiragawa is the girl we picked up to go to school and commute together. I met a girl, Helen. We shared the same locker, and together, we made good friends. And all these years until she passed away, she remembered my birthday and always sent me greeting cards for my birthday. She became one of my best friends.

MH: How did you learn to play the piano?

LS: [Laughs] I'm not a good pianist or musician. It happened, it was during the Depression period. A neighbor of ours daughter, a blind girl, wanted to teach piano. I was one of her first pupil. And being in the neighborhood, she, I was the one who was elected to play piano, start piano lessons. I had to stop at her house every evening after school to practice for a time. Then of course, I didn't get very far. And then I had another teacher at Fine Arts Building in Portland where I went, and I made some progress there, but not a good pianist, not a good musician. I did play on the radio, Oregon Journal Junior Program at Weatherly Building. I remember playing, my teacher insisted the one I played, "To the Wild Rose," that I remember. And at graduation from elementary school I played Minuet, Beethoven's Minuet. But not many people took piano lessons then because it was Depression. I know I had to play, Mother, Dad for one dollar each time I went for a lesson, but it helped Maria who was my teacher, the neighbor.

MH: So your mother and father actually encouraged you to do this, to play the piano?

LS: Well, no. I said I would go, I think because a friend, neighbor of ours, daughter, and we felt sorry for her, and I felt that, I thought that I could being just timely, I was there.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2003 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.