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Higa Takejiro
published Oct 12, 2018
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An Oral History
Takejiro Higa's interview courtesy of the Center for Oral History.
Photographs courtesy of Takejiro Higa. The Hawaii Nisei Project © 2006 School In Japan, up to sixth grade is compulsory. So when I became - what, eight? - I went to school. And much to my surprise, I wasn't supposed to be there. Because according to my sister, my father asked somebody and paid the fee to register me at the consul general's office. But somehow, he did not. So I had no Japanese citizenship. But luckily, the teacher, Mr. Kina, comes from the same village my father comes from. So he knows who I am. So with his testimony, I was able to go to school. We were in an area that had nothing but farms. Our school was composed of twelve villages those days. Twelve village people come school. And our school was centrally located. Although our village was farthest away from the school - we have to go over the mountain trail. I don't know the exact time but it took quite a while [to get to school]. Maybe a mile. Over the mountain trail. Stony mountain trail. And being a poor farmer's kid, no more shoes. Barefoot. So winter months, sore, walking on the stone path. But yet, in those days, our sole was so thick just like got a rubber slipper, yeah. No problem.
Takejiro and his cousin In school, there's a special dome-like thing where they store the emperor's picture. When you pass in front, you're not supposed to look, you just bow your head and then go through. The only time you have an emperor's picture is some kind of ceremony in the school and the picture is displayed in the front. Every student line up and they sing Kimigayo [the national anthem of Japan]. And then service goes on. . .[it] was that strict. [The teachers] don't tell you why you have to study. Just keep reading the textbook, whatever textbook says, and teach you the kanji [Chinese characters used in Japanese writing]. In Japan, they have a course known as shushin [ethics, morals]. I think it's a part of a propaganda course. Teach you ways of life. What you're supposed to do as a human being. Be respectful to your elders, authority, and anybody above you. Or treat your people below you. And in that, of course, they stress the fact, imperial system. I tell you, [my marks in school were] pretty good. There were two of us, always competing one or second. See, in Japan, in those days, either very early April or late April, every year, next to the principal's office, there's a bulletin board. They record those who took examinations to high school, name come out. Every time I look at that, I used to be real envious. Because my family, being poor, I couldn't afford to go to high school. And I felt that if I took that test, I have self-confidence I can pass it. Because those written-down names, I was above them in class every year. So I used to be real envious of seeing the names of my fellow students written up. There's one section for high school girls and one section for boys. Jogakko and shogakko. I used to be very envious. |
Hogen
I was just like a regular Japanese student. At home, I spoke Okinawa lingo, and in school, standard Japanese. In those days, we had a policy of trying to encourage everybody to speak standard Japanese. And if you speak Okinawa lingo in school, we used to have demerit tags, hogen fuda. And it's a shame to have a hanging thing [hogen fuda] all the time until you find somebody who speak the Okinawa lingo, and then pass on. If I ever get one, I used to go behind my friend, kick him from behind. And then he'd yell back in Okinawa hogen [dialect]. I'd say, "Ah, ah, ah." So I report to the sensei [teacher], and sensei passed the tag to him. I guess I was kind of naughty. So anyway, because of it - this was way prior to the war, of course - the Okinawans spoke so much their own language, when you go to Mainland Japan, they'll look down, like a lower-class of people. So the school policy was, if you want to succeed in your life, you got to master standard Japanese. To encourage that, they had the demerit system of högen fuda if you speak hogen at school. At home, it’s — day and night, just same Okinawa högen with the elders. [Interviewer asked, What did you think about that policy as a child?] Well, as a kid, I would say humbug, yeah. Because I was kind of — I shouldn’t say protest[er]—but I didn’t like it. Forced to have that system. But as I grow older, and as I get real old man, I appreciate what I went through. And especially during the Battle of Okinawa. I was able to use that and to help out the people coming out from the cave. [So you were more comfortable speaking Okinawan dialect?] No, no. [When you were young then, what was . . .] Oh, yeah. [. . . your best, what was your . . .] Oh, yeah. Okinawa högen. That’s everyday, daily language. So when you go to school, you’ve got to make an extra effort to speak Japanese, yeah.
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