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TI: Now, was there any confusion, like when you were in school, that you were an American citizen, that you were born in the United States? Was that ever, was that ever confusing to some people?

MS: Maybe to some of the students, but I think, before we even started, Mr. Alexander had given our story to the principal and the teachers, so they all knew what they were, that we were coming. We started school that year, that first year, very late. There was a local school called Scott School that we all attended, it was from first grade all the way through high school. So we all went to the same school. We started school late that year, because my youngest brother, my half-brother was born in camp on August 6, 1945, the day the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, it's his birthday. So we couldn't move out of camp until he was a few weeks old. So school starts in, like, August, early, and then so we were probably six weeks late starting school.

TI: And so that's a difficult situation for any child, to kind of start late, after six weeks, the class gets formed and people get to know each other. So do you remember walking in that classroom, and was that hard for you?

MS: Well, it was probably harder for the students, because they'd never seen Asian people before. But we were accepted. I don't recall any acts of meanness or criticism or anything. And, of course, we excelled in school, so I think that helped, too. But they knew that we could keep up.

TI: Do you recall any of the white students reaching out to you in friendship in those early weeks?

MS: Not any particular incident, but I'm sure they did. We always had friends.

TI: Now you mentioned you excelled, but, so how many students, Japanese students came from these seven families?

MS: Let's see. There were, Yoshimuras there were probably three kids, and then Bob Yada was five... six, seven, eight, nine, ten, maybe twelve, fifteen kids.

TI: So there was a fairly large group that would start. And any, did any of the Japanese have any problems that you were aware of?

MS: No, I don't think so.

TI: So you were, let's see, about what grade did you start?

MS: I started in fifth grade, and stayed there until, through eighth grade. And then when it was time to go to high school, most of the plantation owners' children went to Little Rock High School, which was a little bit of a commute, maybe a half an hour. And they would all carpool and commute together. And my dad wanted us to go to Little Rock High School also. So that's how, when I got to ninth grade, or tenth grade, must be tenth grade, we commuted to Little Rock High School every day.

TI: Now, by this time, did your cousin, was she also going to Little Rock?

MS: No. They had, my uncle Harry had passed away while we were in Arkansas, he had a brain tumor. And so he passed away, and their family moved away when I think she was fifteen, or maybe younger, fourteen, something like that. So they went to Cincinnati, Ohio, because my uncle Harry had a brother there. They only stayed there about a year because it was just, life was just too difficult for my aunt. And she moved, and they moved back to California, they moved back to Stockton. And she, I don't know how she did it, but she managed to raise the three kids and provide for them, and doing housework. She really had a hard, hard life.

TI: It sounds like it.

MS: Yeah.

TI: It sounds like, and your cousin had to, it was difficult for her also to lose her father and to be moved around so much.

MS: Yeah. But they, well, they always had to be working, too, doing whatever jobs they can get babysitting or whatever.

TI: Now, when your uncle Harry died in Arkansas, what kind of service did the family have?

MS: They had a Buddhist service, and I think... I think somebody from Chicago came down, 'cause there was a little community in Chicago right after the war, and I'm not a hundred percent certain, but I know that it was a Buddhist service, and he was cremated. Because we used to order Japanese food from Chicago so we would have soy sauce and things like that.

TI: And to go from Chicago to Little Rock, that's still a long ways. Would someone... took a train down?

MS: No, I think they did mail order. 'Cause we did, they had friends in Chicago, too, who would, my mother's friends lived in Chicago. So I think they had them shipped.

TI: Okay, so they shipped down, like, goods. But I was thinking of the Buddhist priest, when, to do the service.

MS: You know, I'm not a hundred percent certain about that. I'm going to have to ask my cousin.

TI: That's interesting. And it must have also been a huge blow to the families, because your uncle Harry was the one true farmer of the group who knew what he was doing.

MS: Right. Well, by that time, I think we didn't all live in one area. I think there were, I know uncle Harry had bought land in North Little Rock, he had his own place, and maybe a couple of the other families also had purchased land, and I'm sure that there were a couple of other families that did.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.