<Begin Segment 12>

TI: Do you remember kind of like the last day of school at Cleveland?

MT: There's one thing that I remember. We had a vice-principal, and he never... I mean, I always thought that he was kind of stern-looking, and I never really got close to him. But on the last day of school, he called me into the office and I was nervous because I didn't know what to expect. But what I remember is that he apologized for what was happening. I think that really touched me, you know, and he wished me well. I'm sorry. Somehow that has always remained with me.

TI: Yeah, that's a special story. Do you remember his name?

MT: Yes, Mr. Imus.

TI: I'm sorry?

MT: Imus, I-M-U-S.

TI: And do you know if he did this with other Japanese American students?

MT: Not that I know of.

TI: And when he apologized, did he talk a little bit more about what he was apologizing for?

MT: Well, he was sorry for what was happening, that we were being evacuated.

TI: Did he say anything like it was wrong or anything like that?

MT: No, he didn't say that it was wrong, but I was in my senior year and it's right before graduation. Anyway, I do remember that.

TI: In the third letter, you wrote about that, I think you said, "They will put us on the Puyallup Fairgrounds for a while." And I know you didn't go to Puyallup, you went to Pinedale.

MT: Yes. I don't know what that was about now.

TI: So I wonder if they somehow changed, because all the Seattle folks went to Puyallup, and maybe South Park they weren't quite sure where they...

MT: Well, I think they took the city limits line and sort of, you know... so I don't know if there were people in the South Park area that were within the area and went to Puyallup with the rest of the city people or not, but I know that definitely we were not.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2016 Densho. All Rights Reserved.