<Begin Segment 23>

JS: So what was one of, what were... what did you do? Let's see, you came back, and you were still in school.

DM: Oh, yes.

JS: Okay.

DM: High school.

JS: High school. Do you remember going back to high school? Or where did you go, Courtland?

DM: Yes. Courtland High, '46, '47, '48, yeah. Sophomore, junior, senior year. And we didn't have any problem.

JS: No problems?

DM: No. First time we have to go to school with the white people. [Laughs] You know, all this time was in camp, it was all Japanese, and before the war was Oriental school, so first time we went to school with Caucasians.

JS: So what was that like? I mean...

DM: Well, some of the kids, you know, didn't bother us too much. In fact, every class, the Japanese people outnumbered most of the... you know. And the Chinese always stick with the Japanese. So like sophomore, junior year, over half is Asians. And when we have election time, all the gals come and try to be nice so they get voted. [Laughs]

JS: So did you see any of your old classmates, the Chinese classmates?

DM: Do I see a Chinese? Not too many.

JS: Not too many that you knew from before?

DM: No.

JS: No. So it was a new group of students that you went to school with.

DM: Even with Japanese, we don't see too many now either. Especially at my age. [Laughs]

JS: So who did, at lunchtime, did you...

DM: No, we used to pack our own lunch.

JS: You packed your own lunch, and who would you eat with? The Japanese?

DM: Who do we eat with?

JS: Yeah.

DM: Yeah, our Japanese group.

JS: Japanese group.

DM: We sit on the lawn and eat with our group. Only pack one sandwich and put it in the pocket. Lunchtime we'd just take it out and eat it.

JS: So other than going to school, do you, were there other activities at the high school that you were involved in?

DM: Well, I was a lousy athletic, but I used to play basketball, although I didn't get to play much. Just to be on the team, I guess, I used to go.

TI: Did any of your, the Chinese or white people, did they ever ask you what it was like in the camp? Did you ever talk about that?

DM: No. They never ask us that. They knew we don't want to talk about that, I guess. Nobody asked us about that.

<End Segment 23> - Copyright (c) 2009 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.