<Begin Segment 16>

TI: So tell me about the reception at school. So you're the only non-white person, student there. How did the people treat you?

TT: Well, they treated me real well. The dean was real good, and she knew that I had family in the internment camp, and so she wanted to be sure I had a real nice homeroom teacher. And so she got Miss McHugh, and so she wanted, they kind of looked over me. And I didn't know they were doing all this, I just went to school just like everybody else. And Miss McHugh told me forty-five years later, she said, "I remember that day so well," because she said all the new students had to come and sit in the front of the class. And she says, "You were sitting there in a horseshoe, but you were just kind of like this because you didn't know what to do." So she says, "I went over to you, took you out in the hall," and asked to find out more about me. And I told her that the family was still in the internment camp, but I wanted to get out, "so I'm here." And she says everybody else was telling about all the things that they did, and all the families and everything else, but she kind of watched over me, and she and I became very close. And I saw her forty-five years after graduation.

TI: So when you think about this teacher, what does it mean to you that she really took care of you?

TT: Yah, well, I felt real good. And so that day, after I went back for the reunion, then that day afterwards, the next day, I went over to her, where she was, and spent the day with her. And she was so pleased, and she wrote me later and said that was the best thing that happened to her all year, to know that I took the time to come back and see her, and it made her feel good. So you know, I had real good connections with people, so that was nice. And she finally died.

TI: Now during your time at the school, it sounds like people are treating you really well. Were there ever any times when someone would single you out because you were Japanese and because of the war? Was that ever discussed?

TT: Well, they didn't know what I was. They didn't know whether I was Japanese, Chinese, Indian or what.

TI: So the students really didn't know?

TT: No, they didn't know and they didn't care. I was just a new student.

TI: But then when they saw your last name, Yokoyama, didn't they...

TT: Then they must have thought something, but nobody said anything to me. They didn't say, "Oh, are you a Jap?" or anything.

TI: Isn't that odd? I would think generally...

TT: People back east really didn't know what was going on.

TI: But I would think that if your school that's all white, and then a non-white comes, that someone, especially with a last name of Yokoyama, and you're fighting a war against Japan, that either they knew and were polite and didn't say anything...

TT: "What is she?"

TI: Or they would ask.

TT: No, nobody asked, nobody really tried to single me out. People would be real nice to me, the teachers were nice. My English teacher was the only one that wouldn't call me Tak. She says, "Your name is Takeeko." And so everybody in that class knew me as Takeeko. [Laughs]

TI: Did you develop any close friendships?

TT: Yah, but see, there were all kinds of class people. There were real high society people, and I got in with a lot of the friends that were just middle class that knew more about me. And they really treated me real well, and I got along with their families. And there was one family where the mother really took an interest in me and wanted me to come over all the time. So I had a lot of good friends being out there.

TI: And so did your friends know about your family being back in Idaho?

TT: Yah. You know, I would tell them. I wasn't ashamed of anything. I said I just didn't want to stay there and not go to school and get an education.

TI: And when you told them that, did they ever ask more questions?

TT: No, not really.

TI: Like, "Why are they there?"

TT: No. Well, they knew there was a war, because the war was still going on. Because that was 1943, I was there for two years, my junior and senior years.

TI: And so did you ever, in Toledo, ever have a discussion with anyone?

TT: Yah. Because the churches wanted to have people come and talk about the internment, and what do you say? I mean, we just, my sister and I would go to some of the meetings and just tell them what happened, and that we were in the internment camp and that was it.

TI: And did people ask questions then?

TT: Yah, they'd ask questions, and we'd answer.

TI: And what was the purpose of these...

TT: Well, they wanted people to know about it, what was going on in this world.

TI: And when people heard about that, you and your sister talking, what kind of reaction did people have?

TT: Well, they just listened, and they said, "You were really, and where's your parents?" and I would say, "Well, they're still there because they can't leave unless they have a place to go.

TI: And were the comments kind of along the lines that, "Well, that doesn't seem right," or anything like that?

TT: They were thinking that, but nobody ever really came out and said that. It was just the way the world was working, and the laws were that way. And we had to have a reason to leave. We got twenty-five dollars and bus fare to leave the camp. [Laughs]

TI: Yeah, what sort of surprises me a little bit, that people just weren't a little more curious.

TT: Yah, they weren't.

TI: That they would ask...

TT: It was just something that was happening. And like, you know, the kids asked, "Well, why did you do it?" and I said, "Because we were told to." "And why did you leave camp?" "Because I was tired of being there." That was just it, and I wasn't getting an education, so I figured I wanted to get outside and be in a regular school.

TI: Right, right.

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 2015 Densho. All Rights Reserved.