<Begin Segment 13>

AI: What kind of reactions did you get from your Caucasian classmates? Any kind of a...

RT: A few of them distanced themselves. I think I could sense that. But on the whole, after all, we had grown up together, and we were still friends, we were still... I don't know if it was exactly the same for them, but I felt it was the same. And as I say, there were a few that distanced themselves, but they weren't the ones that were most close.

AI: So your close friends stayed close.

RT: Yes. Yes, and treated me just as they'd always treated me.

AI: Any change in treatment from your teachers, other adults?

RT: Not really, not that I could sense. There wasn't any pointing out the Japanese American kids. After all, this is a community where these kids had grown up, and I think that did make a difference. We were members of the community, and good members of the community. So we were not singled out at all in Bellevue, as far as could I tell, in the schools.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.