<Begin Segment 13>

RP: And you completed your senior year at Manzanar High School?

MN: Yes. First, the first, I had to ask Bo. I said, "Bo, what year did we graduate?" I called him the other day. [Laughs]

RP: Bo Sakaguchi?

MN: Bo Sakaguchi. And so he says, telling me, "We're the first graduating class," he says. He said there was no midterm, and so I says okay. And so we were the first graduating, we graduated. But because we were, we were still restricted with photographs, no photography or anything then, so we didn't have, we have this one picture -- I think maybe Shari showed you -- but we couldn't take any, we didn't have a regular album. We used to call them barristers up at Marshall, but we didn't have that. But we had, like, a folder. But it's alright. We survived.

RP: You didn't have an auditorium to graduate in either.

MN: No. [Laughs]

RP: Where did you graduate?

MN: But you know, but we managed and things worked out alright. And I met a lot of friends, and I went to, as long as the reunions were down here we had, like, just our class reunions, our block reunion, we had it for a couple, three times here, and then they decided they're gonna move to Vegas. That's when I decided no. Because of my allergies and things, I didn't go.

RP: Tell us your feelings and opinions about the quality of the school experience at Manzanar.

MN: The school experience? Well, the teacher we had was, we thought, Janet Goldberg, she was very good, very good.

RP: What was it about her that made --

MN: Showed me about, she was more than a teacher. She wanted to get close to the family, and we did. She did things with us. I understand she was, her father was a doctor or something in Long Beach at the time, single. And there was another teacher, she was alright, Hay, or something, her name was, or something like that. But Janet Goldberg, she did a lot. And then Mr. Frizzell, the music teacher, oh gosh, he just went out of his way for everyone. If there was any drama to be done, he was in there. If there's music to be done, he was, you know? And he really participated and tried to make things pleasant for us.

RP: How did, how did Manzanar High School compare with John Marshall?

MN: John Marshall?

RP: In terms of --

MN: Well, we didn't have to keep changing and changing classes or anything, but compared, I think the teachers were closer to the students at Manzanar. In other words, they wanted to help the students themselves. We had some good teachers up here too. Course, you have to move from class to class. Some were good, some were... but we, yeah, we...

RP: Janet was also involved in journalism too.

MN: Hmm?

RP: She was involved in journalism.

MN: Yes, she was involved in journalism. Very, she was very, what should I say? When she did things, she did it, like from ground up and very, very complete, everything. That was her.

RP: Now, had any of the girls, had Sumi attended college before Manzanar? Or any of the girls have aspirations to go to college, like maybe yourself?

MN: Well, we, at that time we thought, gee, going to college, that was for the men or something. [Laughs] To have to support the family and things, you know. But I went, after I came out I went on to, in between, I went on to business school and took up a little more things like shorthand and things, 'cause I wanted to do a little more. But no, we never really even thought of that. And then we used to, "Gee, college is for rich people." [Laughs] But we didn't too, we didn't even think about it 'cause we had to help at the shop, make a living.

RP: So did you make friends at Manzanar that you still have today?

MN: I've lost contact with some of them, and some of them I was seeing more regularly 'cause we were, by coincidence we were going to the same ballroom dance class, same teacher, different areas though. But I'd, Bo, and I'd see him there. But other than that -- and he's telling me some of the friends are living out in the valley. Well, I don't go out that way, so I don't... but no, most of them are, I think, either gone or, I went to one reunion and as you get older and everything you change. You look different too. But no, I haven't really contacted anyone really recently.

RP: You had this great love of dancing. Did you attend dances at Manzanar?

MN: Yes.

RP: Mess halls?

MN: Oh yeah, that was something that we always looked forward to.

RP: What was that like?

MN: It was fun. Nothing fancy, in the mess hall. They'd clear the tables. And I can't remember how often we had them, but we had the small ones in the mess halls, and that was very nice. We had, like, the Frank Sinatra music. [Laughs] In those days, that was when he was just starting out, I think. But it was, we had records, and certain, the fellows would play the records. We had fun.

RP: You also had a couple very talented vocalists in camp.

MN: Yes, in camp. Mary, Mary was very good. There was another fellow, his name was Takeshi. I don't know if you remember him, Takeshi Yamamoto. We used to call him the Frank Sinatra of Manzanar. His voice was very, very, I mean, he was good in the slower things that Frank Sinatra sang, but he was very good. I don't know, he was a San Pedro fellow, young fellow, quiet. I don't know, I've lost track of him. And I used to ask my brother-in-laws, but they seem to, they weren't too sure what happened to him.

RP: San Pedro or Terminal Island?

MN: Terminal Island.

RP: Yogore.

MN: Yeah, Terminal Island. And there was a fellow, he played, he was a concert pianist. He was very good. Now, I didn't know him at the time that we were in camp. I knew his brother for some reason, but I met him by chance at one of the dances, and we got to talking and found out that he's the brother of the person I knew. And so the musicians, they used to call them Jive Bombers. There's one fellow, I think he was the original, his name was Joe Sakai. Kind of, kind of slick hair and everything. And there was, his name was Shig Ishi, well, they used to hang out together, but they used to, part of the band. And that, when it first started it was just a few, just a, not a whole lot of them, maybe three, four of 'em. I have no idea what happened to him.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright &copy; 2011 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.