<Begin Segment 12>

SY: Yeah, because you were going to junior high in camp?

PM: Yes. And then I went into senior high.

SY: Senior high, so what was the junior high school that you went into in camp? Was it --

PM: It was Poston, in Poston.

SY: So all the kids in Poston went to one junior high school and then, and just Camp I?

PM: We just had one, yeah, we just had one junior high school, one high school.

SY: In the, in your camp? There were three camps.

PM: Right. Each camp had a school.

SY: Each camp had its own junior high and its own senior high school. So those people that you met in junior and senior high school, were they, many of them were from Boyle Heights?

PM: They were from all over.

SY: They were from all over. So the people that you met in camp, do you still...

PM: With some of them, yes.

SY: Some of them. Yeah, because you were fairly, I mean, you were young but you were not that young, so you have a better memory, probably, than some of your younger sisters.

PM: Yes. I was thirteen, then I went to high school, let's see, yes, a couple of years. Then I came out and went to Manual High School in Denver.

SY: After the war. But you, but so really your life in camp was spent going to, helping with the chores, going to school, and then going to church, right? So what was the, what was your social life, what was social life with the young kids your age? Did you play much with the other kids?

PM: No. I know there were basketball teams. I'm not very athletic, so we didn't do that. And we had camp, we had socials, so we would go to that, but just going to school took a lot of our time.

SY: And so you studied, and how, was it difficult, the schooling?

PM: The schooling, I would say, is difficult because it was all Asians. They all seemed to really study hard and they have good brains, and so some of the professors turned out to be Japanese Americans that had gone to college and they kind of graded us very, very strictly. [Laughs]

SY: So, but you did, you managed to do okay?

PM: I managed to do okay. [Laughs]

SY: Your, did you excel in anything? Was, were there, did you have favorite...

PM: I got one B, it was a B-plus -- the rest were all A's -- and that was by Ben Sanematsu in geometry, which I never could get onto anyway. [Laughs] But I used to have a friend try to help me, but he graded on some kind of a college principle where you, only certain people, ten percent get A --

SY: Curve.

PM: Yeah, the curve. So that's why I didn't make it into A.

SY: But that's terrific, Peggy, your, you got all A's. Was that true of everybody in the family, or just you?

PM: I don't remember that.

SY: 'Cause that's, I can imagine that it was very difficult going to school with...

PM: All Asians.

SY: Was it, do you remember, did it feel more difficult than when you were in Boyle Heights? Did you study as hard when you were in Boyle Heights?

PM: I don't think so. But it's, after I came out it was so easy. So we left camp about 1945 and I went to Manual High School, and it was so easy that I actually skipped to get into twelfth grade and graduated a half year before graduation, because it was just nothing to do.

SY: Wow. Isn't that something? So it probably paid off for you in some ways.

PM: I was fifteen and a half when I finished high school and I couldn't find a job. They all said I'm too young, so that was the hard part, so finally I ended up working for Dad. Actually, he wanted me to work for him anyway.

SY: I see. That's amazing. Fifteen and a half is young for...

PM: High school graduate.

SY: Because you skipped those two grades.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright &copy; 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.