Densho Digital Archive - Thomas Shigekuni Interview (denshovh-sthomas-01-0013)

<Begin Segment 13>

MN: Now, early on at Amache, classes were held in one of the barracks, but later on you folks got a huge school building.

TS: (Yes).

MN: Can you share with me how this building was funded and built?

TS: (...) I thought that the residents kicked in and paid for that school. I'm not so sure because I was only twelve or thirteen and I wasn't in the pipeline of information.

MN: But the story you had heard is that the people actually paid for --

TS: Paid for that school.

MN: Not the government.

TS: That's a nice school.

MN: Can you describe the school for me?

TS: The outside was like the barracks were, kind of a beige, it wasn't the black tarpaper, beige color. It was nice, nice building. It was long building and then there was a big auditorium where they used to have funerals. [Laughs] They used to have all the 442nd guys that were being killed having funerals there.

MN: Now, the school had music classes. Were you involved in the music classes?

TS: (Yes), I wanted a trumpet and they said, "We don't have a trumpet," and they handed me a clarinet. Said, "I don't want to play a clarinet." There it is. They handed it to me and said, "Learn it." So I learned (how to play) the clarinet.

MN: Now, you got into trouble in class for saying your own pledge of allegiance. Can you share with me that story?

TS: "With liberty and justice for all but us in camp." They, the teacher heard me and sent me to the principal. We had a confrontation and he said, "Who made you say that?" "What do you mean, who made me say that? I said it myself," and we had a very vigorous confrontation out there with (the) principal. I think (his) name (was) Herbert K. Walthers and Margaret Hopcraft, my homeroom teacher. And after that confrontation, Hopcraft and myself, we were standing there in this room and I complained about this interrogation of me. She said, "Thomas, you don't understand. We're trying to help you." I said, "I don't see any help at all from that interrogation." That was it. She said, "Go back to the room."