<Begin Segment 8>

EB: And you were school age when you were at Manzanar, we talked a little bit about that earlier, I looked at some of your report cards and some school pictures. Could you tell me a little bit about school at Manzanar, maybe like where, what block your classes were in, and a bit about your classes and teachers?

GS: Originally the way I remember my second grade class was in the next block. And then... and, oh, I remember this teacher, Mrs. Atwood, had such a terrible time learning the names of the students, because so many of them had Japanese names, and it was very difficult for her to pronounce those names. My name, I have both an English and Japanese name, my middle name is Japanese, but throughout my life I've used my English name in school. So she didn't have problems with pronunciation of my name, but she had terrible problems with many of the other children. And I recall, usually things are done alphabetically for names, but by last name. She did not do it that way. She listed the children alphabetically by first names, and this was probably more than enough that she could manage at that time, now that I, when I thought about it years later. But to me, she was no different than the teacher that I had in Los Angeles before we went to camp. And then my third grade was also part of the time in... I don't know whether that was two blocks over or where. Then eventually we were moved over to... I don't remember what block it was, we had to walk some distance.

EB: Block 16? That was the elementary school block. Here, take a look at the map.

GS: Okay, so we must have had to walk way up to here, because by that time then, I remember there were three... there must have been three or four classes of fourth graders. And from what little I remember, I think we were divided up according to... for lack of a nicer way to say, according to, I guess, our scholastic ability.

EB: Oh, okay.

GS: That's the impression I got. Whether it was so or not, I don't know. Because I used to hear the other kids, when we were out for recess, they would say things like, "Oh, you're in the smart class." I don't know, I mean, this is what I was, this is what I have heard. And I felt that the classes, when we were finally moved over to Block 16, we had regular desks and chairs and seemed to be more organized, whereas the classes in second and third grade in the next block were not, as I felt, not as organized. This may have been just a child's view, I don't know. Although I remember the third grade teacher, she played piano. And I had always wanted to play piano, so I really enjoyed whenever we had music. And she had music in the class quite often, which I thoroughly enjoyed. But I don't remember... in second and third grade, I do recall recess, playing outdoors. But I don't recall anything really organized, sports or games or anything like that. And I don't even recall this, when we moved over to Block 16. We must have had it, but I don't remember.

EB: It might have been more prominent with the older students.

GS: Could have been.

EB: Possibly, yeah. Is there anything else related to school that you'd like to share?

GS: No, not really.

EB: Okay.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2006 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.