<Begin Segment 23>

AI: Well, let's see, so then you were in Minidoka, that would have been the fall of 1943.

BS: Uh-huh.

AI: And probably you would have been starting the fifth grade.

BS: Uh-huh, yes, I think so.

AI: And I understand that Minidoka had two grammar schools?

BS: Grammar schools, uh-huh. I went to Stafford. There was Stafford and Hunt and I, Hunt was on the other end of the camp and so we went to Stafford.

AI: And what was that like when you were going to school there at Stafford?

BS: Well, let's see, I think I was a patrol, what do you call, patrol girl where you, between, we had to stand between the blocks. I don't know, direct kids or whatever to school. And our teacher was Caucasian. And I felt she was, she didn't like being there. I just had this feeling. It's because she would, you know, you'd have the current events. I think kids had weekly readers and then as you got older you had the current events paper, weekly, kind of a weekly paper telling you about the news. And so of course they're gonna be talking about the war. And so she, I know she'd have her back to us and she'd be looking at the map on the wall and I guess, talking about the war and then she'd say something like, "And the Japs..." you know, like ready to say "Japs" and then she'd turn around and she sees they're all Japanese and then she'd add the word "-anese." You knew she was going to say "Japs," but she would add "-anese." And so, I just felt that she really didn't want to be there, but she was there. And, but she got ill, I don't know when it was, but she became ill and she, she was in the hospital for a while and so a group of us went to visit her. And she kind of changed after that. When she came back she kind of... appreciated that.

AI: Well, I had heard that there were also, at the Minidoka schools, some assistant teachers who were Japanese American.

BS: Uh-huh.

AI: Did you have some assistant teachers?

BS: Yes. And in fact, our gym teacher was... oh, what was the name? I think it was Bill Ogasawara, he was our gym teacher and sometimes he would you know, like when the teacher was sick or something he would come in and be a substitute. And I think it was another woman, a woman that would come in, a Japanese American, an internee who was also teaching.

AI: And do you recall much about your class itself, things that you were doing in school, or...

BS: I remember when, when people were going to leave the camp, people were being permitted to go. And then one of the, one of the projects, or whatever, was, we would write a story or a poem about relocating, in other words, relocating from camp to the outside world. And I remember writing a poem about that. So, you know, you just imagine what it's going to be like. I remember that, and, I know we'd have Christmas programs, I would prepare for Christmas programs and giving book reports. I think we had, must have had summer school because, I think we had to attend summer school, too, because I know it was, get awfully hot and I'd get bloody noses because, 'cause it's dry. And I used to get bloody noses so I couldn't attend classes because I would get bloody noses. And my mother had terrible asthma in Minidoka. She'd have to get a damp handkerchief and put it, cover her face because her asthma was... I think it was the dust and the sagebrush.

AI: Well, I had heard and read also that some of the teachers at the Minidoka schools really emphasized democracy and Americanism and saluting the flag and things like that. Do you recall anything like that?

BS: I don't remember. I know we said the Pledge of Allegiance every day. But I don't... maybe high school, but I don't recall. But I remember one, one day... you know Ben Kuroki, was it a Nebraska war hero, he came and visited the camp and we, everybody was out and we were waving flags or whatever and I remember him coming to visit camp.

AI: So that kind of made an impression on you.

BS: Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

AI: Yeah, I remember seeing some photographs from that day.

BS: Oh, uh-huh.

AI: And lots of people coming out for these gatherings.

BS: Yes, yes.

<End Segment 23> - Copyright © 2003 Densho. All Rights Reserved.