<Begin Segment 5>

KL: Your elementary school was "Bailey Gatta?"

SS: Bailey Gatzert.

KL: Do you know how to spell Gatzert?

SS: G-A-T-Z-E-R-T.

KL: Okay.

SS: The principal was a lady, Miss Mahon, she was very, very nice. And I remember when I was working in Japan, people in Seattle paid for her trip to Japan. Because I remember...

KL: The principal?

SS: Uh-huh.

KL: Oh.

SS: That's later years, I think maybe she was retired.

KL: Had you seen her again before seeing her in Japan, or that was...

SS: No. I hadn't seen her since I graduated from Bailey Gatzert and the evacuation. So I didn't see her until Japan when she came for a visit.

KL: Do you remember any other teachers from elementary school that were special to you?

SS: The art teacher.

KL: What do you remember about him or her?

SS: I think she wrote to me in camp, kept in touch for a while.

KL: Was she Caucasian?

SS: Uh-huh. They were all Caucasian.

KL: All the teachers?

SS: [Nods].

KL: But the students were mostly Japanese American?

SS: It was mostly Japanese. Just a few, maybe four or five who were not.

KL: So elementary school, how old were you when you left elementary school? Was it through eighth grade?

SS: Through eighth grade, right. Then I went to high school. A lot of Japanese were there, a lot of us were.

KL: Were there people from other neighborhoods, new people, when you went to high school?

SS: Yes.

KL: What was the high school like?

SS: Excuse me?

KL: What was the high school like?

SS: What was it like? I don't know. What do you mean by what was it like?

KL: Do you remember teachers from there, or classmates?

SS: Oh yes, uh-huh.

KL: What subjects did you like?

SS: Shorthand. I liked history. I liked arithmetic, too. I'm not good at it anymore, but I used to love algebra. Not anymore, though. [Laughs]

KL: You liked both history and algebra, that's a good combination.

SS: Well, history I liked, yes. Because I remember we used to go to the library all the time, every Saturday.

KL: Your family would go?

SS: My sister and I and some other friends. And I would always go to the travel section first. I've been interested in travel from way back, and I would look through the books at different countries and hope that one day I would get around to that.

KL: Did you have a list of places you wanted to see?

SS: No, not a list, but I was just curious.

KL: Tell me about the library building.

SS: It's still there, but I think maybe they modernized it. I think maybe they rebuilt it, I don't know. [Addressing someone off camera] Do you remember? Are you from Seattle? You're not, oh. But it's different now. I don't know if they tore it down or just refurbished it, or what they did.

KL: Do you remember its name?

SS: Huh?

KL: Do you remember the library's name? Was it named for a person?

SS: No, I don't.

KL: I haven't been to Seattle either, before.

SS: Are you from Seattle?

KL: No, I've never been there, so I don't know its geography as well. Did you walk to the library?

SS: Yes. We walked most of the time.

KL: Do you know what street the Europe Hotel was on, the street name?

SS: It's no longer a street, I think it's sort of a highway. Charles Street.

KL: How do you spell it?

SS: C-H-A-R-L-E-S, Charles.

KL: Okay.

SS: And let's see, there was across... I remember Rainier Avenue was close by, do you remember that?

KL: And that was you and your sister's routine on Saturdays, to walk to the library?

SS: Uh-huh.

KL: What else did you do on weekends? Did you have other traditions?

SS: No, we got together with friends. Can't remember what we did, but...

KL: Did you play baseball?

SS: We used to play baseball in the streets. I used to be able to hit pretty well. I don't now, but...

KL: I played softball just one season and we were 0 and 12. It was not good. [Laughs] Were you part of a team or any sports team?

SS: No, no, it's just the games were on the... we played with the boys, too.

KL: Did you go to a Japanese language school or anything?

SS: We didn't.

KL: But you did speak Japanese some with your folks, with your parents?

SS: Well, they spoke Japanese, so we spoke, we understood what they were saying, and we picked up some Japanese from them. And then when we went to Japan, we picked up some Japanese there. That's about it. But I know more Japanese than my sister because right after the war, I went to Japan to work for the occupation forces just, right after the war.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2012 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.