<Begin Segment 18>

KL: What about, tell us about school? What grades were you guys in school there?

KM: I was there from first grade, because I spent K here in town.

YI: Before your mother took you out.

KM: Yeah. And then you started preschool?

YI: Something like that, yeah.

KM: I think it was preschool. And I went from first grade on until fourth grade when we came home, then I went to Betsy Ross from the age of eight, nine.

KL: But in Manzanar, what was the school like inside? Do you remember your classrooms?

YI: I don't remember.

KM: Yeah, there were little children-sized chairs and little tables.

YI: Was Nancy in your class?

KM: You know, I don't see her in any of my classes, or Chiharu. These are two women that I knew from before the war in Mar Vista. I don't recall her being in any of my classes, and I was in the beginning of fourth grade. But it was just regular, Mrs. Sandridge, they lived in a separate compound.

KL: The teachers?

KM: Uh-huh.

KL: What do you remember about Mrs. Sandridge? What was her personality?

KM: She was a very kindly lady and she was attentive to the children. She had a son named Sandy.

YI: Sandy Sandridge?

KM: And he was, he went to school there, but I thought they had a separate school. He came to our school.

KL: Was he your age?

KM: Yes. Who else was there?

KL: You mentioned Mrs. Dill.

KM: Oh, yeah, Dill, D-I-L-L. She had a little club for us, and she invited us to her home for lunch, and she had soup and a sandwich.

KL: Outside of camp?

KM: No, she lived in the white compound. But once again, kind ladies who wanted to show us life outside of camp was there somewhere, and we'd be leaving one day. She was an elderly lady.

KL: Mrs. Dill?

KM: Uh-huh.

KL: When you say elderly...

KM: She was in her fifties, probably. The others were younger. I remember that's where I had my first gingerbread cake. It was pink frosting with gingerbread flavor, and gingerbread colored cake. And then there was a Japanese teacher named Miss... her brother was a dentist, Sakaguchi was her name.

KL: What do you remember about her?

KM: She wasn't very, she was nice, but she wasn't timid. She was, for an Asian woman, she was more forthright. Those are the teachers I remember. Oh, Mrs. Hill, she was middle-aged, she was probably thirty-five. [Laughs] And she was another nice lady, second or third grade.

KL: Was school hard or easy or interesting?

KM: I had no comparison, because I only went to school in camp. But I thought it was interesting, and we learned things. I remember studying the Indians in third grade.

KL: Why do you remember that in particular?

KM: Because I got a little prize for painting an Indian boy, and he was brown. His leather outfit was brown, and he was brown. I got a star for him or something. That's my Indian recollection, but learned about hogans and the East Coast Indians, and different Indian cultures. So I paid attention in school. [Laughs]

KL: What about you, Yasuko?

YI: I don't remember a lot about it, because it was at preschool and then kindergarten and first grade. I think I did second grade when I came out, so I don't remember. I don't remember first grade, I don't remember the teachers.

KL: Did you guys walk to school together?

KM: We must have, huh? Because the school was in Block 16.

YI: How far was it? I'm sure your mother made you take me, because certainly you weren't dragging me along. I told you she was always ditching me. [Laughs]

KM: Well, not on the way to school.

YI: I don't know.

KM: It was my job to ditch you, Yasuko.

YI: But everybody had the same age siblings, pretty much, so her friend's sister was usually my friend, and so...

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2013 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.