<Begin Segment 21>

LH: What was the school situation then?

MS: Oh, well, when we went, there was one school that I went to, Huntville. And then as the population grew, then they opened up a second school called Stafford School. And the elementary schools were taken care of very immediately as we went into camp. I did notice that my oldest brother didn't have a place to go immediately. There was a time when they were still trying to set something up for them.

LH: And he would have been high school age?

MS: No, he was still junior high school, so when he came out he was high school age and that's where... but I think that important formation years are your junior high years when you learn to either go with authority and respect academics and everything. And I think he lost that chance, which I really think is...

LH: He didn't seem to enjoy school. From what you're telling me, it seems that he didn't enjoy school, but was school a positive experience for you?

MS: For me, it was. I guess they had the more caring people as teachers, or I was lucky to get them.

LH: Can you describe the setting of the school? I don't read too much about that.

MS: Well, all I remember is it was one of the rooms in a barrack which they set aside for it, and my room had little tables and chairs just pretty much like a classroom. I didn't know what a classroom looked like because this was my first experience, really, in a formal situation, so that to me was what a classroom should look like. Small tables and chairs and a teacher. And we had a blackboard or some kind of board that she drew on because I remember her writing with chalk. But it was one of the barracks, one of the rooms in the barrack that was transformed.

<End Segment 21> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.