<Begin Segment 16>

TI: And how, what kind of student were you at Little Rock? If people were to talk about Marian as a student, what would they say?

MS: Oh, I probably wasn't the top student, because the school had very, very high standards. But I did very well, probably B-plus. [Laughs] There's certain subjects that I excel in, and others like math and science that I don't like, so probably didn't do as well.

TI: And you mentioned clubs? What clubs did you...

MS: Oh, they had these service clubs for each grade level and they met after school once a week or a couple times a week, and I was able to participate in that. And then on the, like Fridays, they would have their football games so I would stay and enjoy that.

TI: In these clubs or activities, were you ever singled out to participate in anything special?

MS: Not in the clubs so much, but I was asked to attend Arkansas Girls State when I finished my junior year just before we came back to California. So that was an entirely new experience that I had that had never, never had anything like that before. It was summer camp where they learn about state government. I don't know if they have them anymore, but every state used to have Girls and Boys State. So I was one of the two representatives from my high school.

TI: And so here you have representatives from all the high schools. Now, was this... I'm guessing back then it was segregated, so this was only...

MS: Only white kids.

TI: Only white kids. So you were, in this case, the only non-white.

MS: Uh-huh.

TI: And the people at Little Rock High School kind of knew you because you were going there. Did you get any reaction from the other students at Girls State?

MS: No, I don't recall being singled out or anything. 'Cause back then, you know, you're either white or you're black. You drink out of the black fountain or the white fountain, or you sit in the front of the bus or you sit in the back of the bus. There's just no, nothing in between. And then since were considered, quote, "white," everyone treated us that way.

TI: But was there any curiosity in terms of asking what your background and where you came from?

MS: They all knew that we came from Rohwer, that there was a camp there. They didn't know much about what happened in the camps or why we were there, but they knew that that was why we were in Arkansas. So we got stared at a lot, but you know, you get used to that after a while.

TI: So did it ever come up in any of your classes where you were asked to explain the camps or who was there, why they were there or anything?

MS: Not really. I had to write an autobiography once, and I know that the teachers were passing it around amongst themselves because they were very curious to know our background. This was when I was maybe seventh grade, so it was very sketchy, and I wish I had the copy of that, but I don't. But they were really curious about our background.

TI: Oh, that's interesting. But it was, was it viewed as maybe not polite to ask you directly what happened? Why not just have you talk about it?

MS: I don't know why they didn't ask. Maybe they thought that we were still too sensitive about it, I don't know. But everything was told before we arrived. It was channeled, you know, through certain ways, and they never really, I don't ever recall being asked direct questions about our camp life.

TI: How was it for you on, like, the anniversary of December 7th, the bombing of Pearl Harbor? When Pearl Harbor Day came up, how did you feel on that day?

MS: In Arkansas?

TI: In Arkansas.

MS: I don't ever recall it being brought up. You know, I just don't think that they... well, maybe they did, but at least it never affected me.

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.