<Begin Segment 6>

MN: Now, you folks got into Tanforan in May, so it's still school year, did you attend school at Tanforan?

JD: Yes. Yes, I did.

MN: What was that like?

JD: It was certainly different from Raphael Weill. It was a different set up. We had teachers, and I'm not too sure if our educational quality was as good as what we had in San Francisco. Maybe some of the teachers were not really prepared to be teachers at that point. But yeah, but we went to school, and I don't remember too much about the school except I know that we did go to school.

MN: Now, you have the story about your older sister telling you to go get some chewing gum from the soldier. Can you share that story?

JD: Yeah, because there wasn't too much to do in Tanforan, so on the weekends we would go to a grassy area that was right by the fence, and of course they had the guards patrolling the fence, and because she was twenty she didn't think she could go and ask someone who was probably about her age or maybe even younger or a little bit older, and so because I was a seven year old she said, "Why don't you go and ask them for some chewing gum?" So I said okay, so I went up and I asked one of the guards that went by, said, "Have you got any chewing gum that you can give me?" [Laughs] And so he, I can't remember now if he gave the whole pack or if he gave me a couple. I don't remember that, but yeah, but I got the chewing gum.

MN: So he was friendly enough to do that?

JD: Yeah, he was.

MN: Now, were all your friends also at Tanforan?

JD: Most of my friends, yeah.

MN: Do you remember what your parents were doing at Tanforan?

JD: No, I sure don't. I don't know what they did. I don't know what any of us did in Tanforan.

MN: Now, what do you remember of the food at Tanforan?

JD: Terrible. What I remember is we had pork and beans and egg foo young. We had it for so many times every week, every month that at this point in time in my life I hate both of those foods. I will not touch it. Yeah, I just will not touch it. Milk was another one because it was not real, it was not fresh milk. I think it was powdered milk, so it didn't taste good. Although I do drink milk now, but egg foo young and pork and beans I absolutely will not touch. I eat eggs, but just not egg foo young.

MN: Your oldest sister, you mentioned she was at Cal State, University of California, Berkeley.

JD: Right.

MN: Was she supposed to graduate from there?

JD: No, because she was just a junior, so she would've had that year to finish plus another year. Now, she did get an honorary degree that was a program that was initiated by Cal. It was a couple of years ago, and so she was a qualified recipient for that. Unfortunately she died the day before the announcement was made, so that kind of saddened her kids, as well as me. And I was in Chicago at the time my sister died, and a friend of ours here in San Francisco called to tell me about this honorary degree, so I said, oh, that's, I said I'm happy about that, but it's too bad because my sister just died the other day, the day before. And so, because my sister was still pretty clear of mind, even though she was dying from cancer she was still pretty clear of mind. She also had dementia, but as you were telling her something she understood, but it might've gone out of her mind the minute you finished, but I wish we could've told her about this. That's what saddens me. But yeah, we did get the honorary degree for her.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.