<Begin Segment 4>

LT: When you were in Kent, you began first grade.

MN: No, Auburn.

LT: Auburn, okay. And what language did you speak, you and your brothers and sisters?

MN: Oh, we spoke English, but the folks talked Japanese, too.

LT: So how did that happen?

MN: We went to Japanese school.

LT: But, so you spoke Japanese...

MN: Before, until we went to school.

LT: Okay. And so when you went to school, you only spoke Japanese?

MN: I don't think so, I think we spoke English. My brother was much older, so we probably learned from him.

LT: Okay. So your brother talked to you in English when he came home from school?

MN: I'm sure.

LT: What about playing with neighbors?

MN: Well, there was lots of Japanese neighbors.

LT: Okay. Were there any neighbor kids who spoke English?

MN: I don't know. I think they did.

LT: So when you went to school, you primarily spoke Japanese, but you had learned some English.

MN: I thought we spoke English quite a bit, I don't know.

LT: Okay. What do you remember about school?

MN: Oh, I enjoyed school. It was challenging.

LT: What part was challenging for you?

MN: Just reading, writing, whatever the school offered.

LT: And what did you like about school?

MN: I liked going to school. I just liked to go school.

LT: So Japanese language school was in Auburn?

MN: There was, yeah.

LT: Okay. So you attended school until two or three o'clock, and then you went to Japanese language school. So what was that like?

MN: Well, we just learned Japanese, and then we walked home, all my brothers, we all walked home when we got finished with that class.

LT: So you walked to school, Japanese language school, after regular school, and then walked home. What did you learn at Japanese language school?

MN: Writing and reading.

LT: Was that difficult?

MN: I didn't think so.

LT: And did that help you to communicate with your parents?

MN: We communicated with parents all along, ever since we were born.

LT: So I wonder what the purpose of Japanese language school was if Nisei already could speak to their parents.

MN: Well, they probably wanted us to learn how to read and write the language, Japanese.

LT: And so were you able to read Japanese books and Japanese stories?

MN: We didn't have time for that.

LT: Okay, because there were other things that kept you busy?

MN: Well, school.

LT: Okay, so regular school and Japanese language school.

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