<Begin Segment 15>

RP: Tell us about going to school in Jerome. What was that like?

DT: Jerome we first started, we just had benches and we sat on benches and a lot of our teachers were Japanese. And they were pretty strict and Japanese is so competitive, everybody had to get a best score. Well, I guess I wasn't that competitive but I guess I did alright. But I guess my mom didn't know what the other people's grades were so I guess it didn't matter. [Laughs] You know, very competitive. My sister-in-law, Bill's sister says she was very competitive but I guess even today she is competitive but I never was... but all Japanese that way.

RP: Did you have a favorite subject in school? Something you're really attracted to?

DT: No, not that I could think of. They weren't too hard. Only thing I had problem was typing I don't know why, I just could not type, but the other things just came naturally. I didn't study that hard.

RP: Did it feel like a normal school to you or just something that was kind of artificially created?

DT: No, I guess it's normal because they gave grades and things. And it was something you had to go, you know, school, you just had to go to school.

RP: Were you in any clubs or involved in any school activities? Plays? Sports?

DT: No, I'm not a sports person. Ping pong was about my speed. [Laughs] And dance was out and I didn't go to church. My parents before the war, everybody went to church every Sunday but my mother was too busy working I guess she couldn't keep track of us but I never went to church. My sister, all she'd do was go to dances.

RP: Your sister was the popular one.

DT: Very. And they were clique-ish, there were about four boys and four girls, and they would dance every Saturday night. She was very popular and I guess she was a good dancer too and her friends were pretty nice looking and the guys were very nice looking. [Laughs] I remember them; they really stood out. But she doesn't remember anything about camp, she says, "I can't remember." And I said, "I remember you being so popular." She says, "I didn't know I was." [Laughs]

RP: Was there any particular person besides your family or friends that really stuck out in your mind in Jerome?

DT: Our barrack was sitting this way, facing that way and the other barrack was facing us. And when the questionnaire came out about, was it "no-no" or "yes-yes" or something, anyway, the people across the way, they all were going to go to Tule Lake. And our side it was a family that was going to go to Tule Lake and so our family and another family were not going to go to Tule Lake. And so my dad said if you had to go to war we are loyal to America, well, our family all did. But the others, they didn't want to be loyal and they didn't want to send their kids to army so they signed up "no-no" and they were to go to Tule Lake. Well, when my father came out they belittled him and they called him inu, that's a dog and I guess if it's a dog you're a rotten person I guess. And every time he came out to go to work or anything they'd call him inu and they just belittle and they were all around us. And when it came time to go to Tule Lake, that whole bunch went but they didn't... "no-no" went to Japan. They're all back. They were all back. They changed their mind after they went to Tule Lake. But oh, they treated my dad terrible. But I didn't sense it because they never called me "dog" or anything, they just called my dad. But after the war, after we came home he says it was pretty bad. But I think it was... that's really the bad thing that I remember about after we came home. But I had girlfriends and we went to school together so I made a lot of friends from the class from Fresno and everyone, but I never did contact them afterwards. But it was fun making new friends.

RP: For you, was that the most positive part of your Jerome experience? And what would be the most negative? What you just described?

DT: Yeah.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright &copy; 2010 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.