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GS: We didn't... my siblings nor I, none of us attended formal Japanese school like some of my friends did every day after school. And I don't know why we never did it. Obviously my parents did not think it was that important. My only knowledge of, with a formal class is when I took Japanese at UCLA for one year. [Laughs]

EB: All right. Did you ever take any dance classes or anything else that...

GS: Japanese dance? No, no Japanese dance.

EB: Okay. Could you describe your family's social life and community activities before the war?

GS: I don't know that I could say we had a social life. I know we visited with friends. But back then I was so young, I really don't remember. Because when I went to camp I was not quite, I was only six years old. So I remember us having a picnic like on a Sunday at the park, but this was family, and it was not that often. So as far as social activities, I really can't remember, I don't recall.

EB: Okay. Did you or your family make any return trips to Japan before the war?

GS: Before the war? No. You mean with my parents?

EB: You and your parents, or your parents themselves?

GS: No.

EB: Okay, so your father never went back to Japan after he left, then.

GS: Not before the war. He finally did make one journey back to Japan in 1960. This is something he had been wanting to do for many, many years, because he still had a brother and a sister living there. But he did that in 1960, and that was the only time he went back. And we as a family really wanted him to go back because we knew that his health was such that we didn't know how much longer he would be living. And we were fortunate that his health was well enough following his cancer surgery that he could go back and visit. That's the only time that he returned.

EB: What kind of impact did that trip have on him?

GS: I think he was very happy he was able to go back. I read in a letter of his that he wrote to my mother while he was still in Japan, they had a memorial service for his mother. This, too, I think is something to do with the Buddhist religion, x-number of years or something. And they advanced it forward one year because my father was there. It should have been the following year, but because my father was there in Japan at that time, his brother and sister decided to have this memorial service or whatever it was. And I distinctly remember my dad writing to my mother saying that "it really brought back memories of my mother and when I was young." But that's all he said. He did not elaborate what the memories were, but it must have been very strong for him when they had that service.

EB: Do you know the kind of education he had in Japan?

GS: As far as I know, my father went through the usual grammar school, but I do not think he had graduated high school. I don't think he had finished.

EB: All right. And what schools did you attend growing up, before the war? You were quite young.

GS: I was quite young, yes, I know. And I was trying to find an old report card because I know we still have it. My mother kept all these things, but I looked for it and I could not find it. I went to grammar school somewhere in East L.A., in that Boyle Heights area. And I recall something about East First Street school, whether that was the name of the school? I mean, I'm sorry, I really don't know.

EB: That's all right.

GS: And then we went to camp, so we were in Manzanar. And I was there through second and third grade, and I finished third grade in Maryland. Then I was, I started fourth grade, but I finished fourth grade -- because we moved again -- so I finished fourth grade in Seabrook, New Jersey, then I went to fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth grade in New Jersey, and I was in my freshman year, ninth grade, in high school, when we moved back to Los Angeles. Then I graduated high school here in Los Angeles at Fremont High School.

EB: Okay.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2006 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.