<Begin Segment 3>

BH: And where did you go to elementary school?

HI: I went to Russellville.

BH: Okay. And where was that located again?

HI: About a 102nd and Stark, what is now the Russellville Commons Retirement Village.

BH: Right. When you first went to school, did you speak Japanese or English or both?

HI: Oh, I spoke English, because my older brother and (older sister) all spoke English.

BH: Right. And was that close enough to the farm where you could walk to school?

HI: Not really, a bus came by.

BH: And there were a few other Japanese Americans living in the Montavilla area at the time.

HI: Quite a few, I would say.

BH: So at school, were your friends Caucasian or Japanese, or both?

HI: Mainly Caucasians, but I had a few that were Japanese (and) became good friends.

BH: Did you take your lunch to school?

HI: Well, yes. My mother made lunch and we took it to school. (On) the first day of school, (...) my mother said, "When you eat your lunch, you can come home," and I literally took her word for it. After lunch, I walked home, which was about a mile, and pretty soon my sister comes (running) home. I don't know if she called on the phone or what, but she comes running home to see if I was there.

BH: Because you weren't at school for the afternoon.

HI: Right.

BH: That's funny.

HI: I just followed directions.

BH: On the farm, did you have, what were your responsibilities?

HI: Well, we were young. I kind of watched (and) babysat my brother, because I was seven years older. And then I had to wash the rice for dinner, just things like that, that I can do.

BH: And then when you got a little older, did you help more outside on the farm?

HI: (Oh, yes). And then we had to pick berries in the summertime, and help transplant the plants. They'd plant the seed, and the seedlings would come up, and then they would transplant it into the fields, so I would help with that.

BH: Do you remember going on any trips with your family, any vacations?

HI: Oh, about the only time was after the berry season was over, we all took a trip to the beach for about a week and went crabbing down at Netarts. That was fun.

BH: And did you camp or did you stay at a motel?

HI: No, I can't remember. I think we rented a cabin (...).

BH: Many Niseis attended Japanese schools. Did you?

HI: Well, as I got older, there was a Japanese school in the community in Montavilla and my older brother and sister went before I did, of course. (...) I just went a few years before camp.

BH: How'd you feel about going to Japanese school?

HI: I really didn't care for it. It was too hard. (...) But it was a gathering place for the community, too, because they taught judo there, and they'd have tournaments or whatever. So we'd go to (those events).

BH: What did you do for fun outside of school?

HI: Outside of school? Oh, I don't know. (Not very much, we had too many chores to do.)

BH: Did you play ball or anything?

HI: Well, in grade school, about seventh and eighth grade, I played softball a lot. And I was in, like the A class, which was a smaller class that had midterm graduations in order to graduate in January. But the war started in '41, and everything was so uncertain that I stayed on an extra half a year to finish out the year supposedly to graduate. But, of course, we had to leave before graduation, so I didn't have a graduation.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2014 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.