<Begin Segment 22>

LH: I've actually seen a photo in a Minidoka Interlude yearbook, and it shows a classroom and pasted on the walls are patriotic posters. Do you recall that sort of patriotism?

MS: Oh yes, that's right. And we were also encouraged to grow victory gardens 'cause in-between the barracks there is this barren space, so Isseis, being as industrious as they always are, they used to dig it up and make garden space and everything. And so we were told as youngsters to go home and get a part of that and make our victory garden. And I don't know what we were going to do with what we grow there but it was to be called a victory garden, and I remember doing that. I remember that I learned to say the Pledge of Allegiance while I was there, and it was ironic because the teacher that taught me was a German teacher who chose to be there. I believe she was associated with the Quakers or some pacifist group, and she wanted us to know what it was truly like to be an American. So she taught us the meaning of what that was and the Pledge of Allegiance and I do remember. And it makes me a little bit teary-eyed 'cause I think of the irony of learning the Pledge of Allegiance while being behind barbed wire fences in the camps. But she was so loving that... I remember I had a leaning towards art and so she taught me how to draw and make pastel drawings. And she told me, "Draw what you see." And the only things I could see were the barracks and the watchtowers and then some of the sky -- our skies used to be orange near the evening hours. And I remember a lot of that in my drawings of the camp. And I remember it being on the wall and to this day I could still see it. I wish I had it. But I think she developed my love for art and my understanding that we were okay. We were in this camp but we're not to worry about it, we were okay people. I don't, I don't remember feeling that at the time. I do feel that that's what helped a lot of us, was that she was such a loving person.

LH: And that your circumstance was not of your own doing?

MS: Yeah, I think she tried to explain that to us, but being as young as we are, it would have led to other, other, other. So all she did was try to make us feel that this situation was very unfortunate, but don't feel that we were guilty of anything.

<End Segment 22> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.