<Begin Segment 11>

KL: I have two more things I kind of wanted to ask about Manzanar time. And one was school. You mentioned on the phone a couple of teachers that you remember.

UN: Yes.

KL: Would you tell the tape about them?

UN: Well, for our math teacher, we had a teacher that retired, but she came in to help us out. For a speech teacher, we had a blind person, Mr. Greenly, and so he would come in with another Japanese person so that people wouldn't sneak out of the room. [Laughs] And for our science teacher, we had a Japanese American fellow who was attending UC Berkeley at the time, and he became our chemistry professor. And then for our...

KL: Is that Mr. Nakamura?

UN: Yes. And then for our physics teacher, Mr. Ikeda, he was also going to UC Berkeley, and he came, he became our physics teacher. And then we...

KL: What was their attitude toward teaching in their classes?

UN: They acted like teachers. They were very good... of course, in chemistry, we didn't have a laboratory, it was all dry lab, because we didn't, the government didn't furnish chemistry beakers and all that.

KL: Did that ever change, did you ever get a lab?

UN: I don't know. After I graduated, I went to the park right away, so I don't know what happened thereafter. I thought I was getting a good education until that first year in college, wow, it just about swallowed me. [Laughs] It was tough.

KL: The other topic I wanted... was there anything else about the school that you wanted to talk about?

UN: Oh, yes. I came to appreciate all the teachers that came in, or helped us. Because without their help, I couldn't get into college. And if you don't go to college, you can't have, you can't have a career that's meaningful for the rest of your life. They made it so that I had a meaningful life for the rest of my life. I was able to work in research and do what I liked to do. And I really appreciate that.

KL: Did you see any of those teachers again, or remain friends with them?

UN: Yes. We had a Manzanar reunion, and I knew Ms. Cramer was going to be there. And I noticed that --

KL: She was the homeroom teacher?

UN: Yeah. And I noticed that, I remembered that she has these plastic bracelets, and so I bought her a stainless, I mean, a silver bracelet at Bullock's, and I gave it to her, and she cried. And she said, she told me, said that I was so stubborn that she knew I was gonna succeed. [Laughs]

KL: When were those reunions? Were they in the '50s?

UN: Pardon?

KL: When were those reunions? Was that in the 1950s or more recent?

UN: Around the '60s. Well, you had to be a little stubborn. [Laughs]

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2013 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.