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VY: But you brought up an interesting thing talking about what younger people, what you want younger people to know. And I know you used to be a high school teacher.

JT: Yes. I taught history and government and economics. I can't believe that I did that. I was a page ahead of the kids. [Laughs]

VY: When was that?

JT: I taught from 1966, '65 to 1971, six years at Alameda High School. I taught at the same school that I attended, which is...

VY: What was that like?

JT: Well, I had some of the same, I worked with some of the same teachers that I had that taught me. And they always call you Miss Takeda, so I was Miss Takeda until I got married, and in a few months I became Mrs. Takata. We didn't change names very much. But it was interesting, and I have one teacher who's still alive. I haven't seen her now in five years, but I think she's Mrs. Anderson. But she heard my voice in a skilled nursing facility, I was going to visit my husband. And she heard my voice and she turned around and she said, "Is that Miss Takeda?" And she remembered my voice and I thought, "Oh my gosh, it was like sixty years later." But it's funny how you connect, you stay connected to people. But I taught at Alameda High, and I taught history. And I think in those days I taught World History and U.S. History, and I was, must have been very naive because there was no page about the internment in the books. And it didn't bother me then. I think I was struggling so hard just to get through the class or whatever, but I knew the author of the book, Dr. Peeples, and so we had a long discussion about that. And in his revised edition, he added a paragraph or two about that.

VY: How old were you?

JT: When I was teaching? I was twenty-four, and I stopped when I was thirty.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.