<Begin Segment 20>

MN: Now let me ask you about your schooling in Poston. When did school start?

MT: Oh, about the year after we got in camp. I was already in my high school -- not high school, but senior year. I was going to graduate that year, so they went into camp. But there was nothing to educate us with, they didn't have books or anything. He was a college student, so he was going to be a teacher. But how can he teach when he didn't learn how to teach, he didn't have the books to teach? Actually, it was just, you got together and say, "This is a classroom," and that was it. As far as I can... I can't remember anything about the place. Because by the time they built the auditorium, I left there and went to Crystal City, Texas.

MN: Now when you were in the classroom, though, did you have desks?

MT: It was... well, not a desk desk, but it's all made in camp. They made it in camp. It's more like, more a bench, and they just made a table and bench and that was it. You didn't have any seat, no chairs anyway, a bench. I understand they got pretty good afterward, but not when I was there. Well, I was only there for half a year or something like that.

MN: Were there any Caucasian students in your class?

MT: No. This was all Japanese. Because, well, the guards like that, their kids went to a different school outside of camp.

MN: Do you remember any hapa kids, mixed?

MT: Mixed ones? Gee... I don't think so. There weren't any around in our area. I don't remember any hapas. I heard that they, about it, but no, I don't remember anybody, because ours were all just Japanese-Japanese, the whole quad.

MN: Now, you were in the first graduating high school class in Poston, is that right?

MT: Yeah. As a matter of fact, my wife had the picture here at one time. She said, "Here's a picture, when you guys got together you went out and took a picture." That was in, gee, how many years ago? She was showing me a couple of weeks ago. [Laughs]

MN: What was the high school called?

MT: Just a high school, that's all it was.

MN: Like Poston High School?

MT: I guess, because we had no name or anything. Like I say, we didn't even have an actual class. You didn't learn anything. Only thing you do is you just went there and then they gave you a piece of paper that says that you graduated. I don't even know what happened to that paper. Probably my mother had it in Japan. To me, it didn't mean a thing 'cause I went to class, we had no books or nothing. You didn't learn anything. You would think that if you have a math book you have one book, even if a teacher had it and he could write on the blackboard. He can't teach anything 'cause he didn't know what to do. That was real bad for the teachers.

MN: Do you remember a graduation ceremony?

MT: There was no such things.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright &copy; 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.