<Begin Segment 14>

JS: What were some of, what were some of the memories of your life in Poston? Your friends, school, things like that?

MN: I had a lot of fun, yeah.

JS: Doing what?

MN: I had, going to school, I had a, Mr. Jackson, a lot of, there was a lot of... well, this, no. Right after we went into school, there were all, lot of Japanese. The people in the, in camp were the teachers, 'cause there wasn't anybody there to, to teach. So I, my sister was teaching third grade at the time when we first got in, when we first got in. And then after that, about a year later, then they got in new, the help from outside.

JS: How were they as teachers?

MN: Well, I think my sister was a really good teacher. [Laughs] Although I was already in the seventh grade, so I don't know.

JS: How about the teachers that were hired from outside?

MN: Oh, they were, I... they were really wonderful. I had a, I had a music teacher, and I even had a Home-Ec. teacher.

JS: And what kind of activities did you participate in?

MN: Oh, I was in, I was in the Girl Scouts, and I was in the, we went to church. There was a church there.

JS: And how about your family, your parents? Did you notice any...

MN: "Here we go again." [Laughs] They had one extra room, my mother and father, they gave us two rooms, but then my mother and father wanted to start, start a little gaming room. [Laughs] "Gaming room," so yeah, she had three tables of -- I think they play a game called Hana, Hana.

JS: Could you describe what that is?

MN: It's a card game. They play with little, little, it's a small little cardboard-like, you know, that thick cardboard, and there's about forty-two cards in there, and then, and then you, three people will play, or six people gets to play, but then three people have to, have to get out, because only three people gets to play.

JS: Now, were they playing just for fun?

MN: No, I don't think so. I think they were playing for money. [Laughs]

JS: How did, how did that exist?

MN: Oh, but it's only nickel, nickel or dime.

JS: Okay, okay, but how, did anybody tell on them to close it down?

MN: No, oh, no. No, it was... yeah.

JS: Who would come to play there?

MN: All those, lot of those people that lived in our block.

JS: So they pretty much knew about this, then?

MN: Uh-huh.

JS: And how often would they play?

MN: Probably every day.

JS: Every day?

MN: Uh-huh.

JS: Oh, wow.

MN: I think so. I really, I never thought about that. Maybe my sisters might say, "Oh, no. It didn't happen." [Laughs] I think I put my parents in a bad light. [Laughs] My parents did everything. I mean, they, they always made fun.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2004 Densho and The Japanese American Museum of San Jose. All Rights Reserved.