<Begin Segment 19>

KL: How did you change the inside of -- this is jumping topics -- but I wanted to ask about how your barracks apartment changed from when you moved into it until when he came back. What was in your apartment when he came back? What do you remember about... still just the mattresses and blanket?

SO: All I remember are beds. I think that's the only furniture.

MS: The metal cots? SO: The metal cots, yeah, the beds for all of us. And we each had a bed, right? A cot.

MS: Which was good, because of the bugs and all these scorpions and things like that, yeah.

KL: Did anybody make furniture for you?

MS: No.

SO: No. One nice thing about camp was every day at two o'clock, the women made, it was snack time, so at two o'clock you just went to this... I don't remember where we went, but they had sembei or they had something for us kids to snack on.

KL: You said you don't know where that was?

SO: No. I know it wasn't in the mess hall. It must have been at some lady's house.

KL: Was it in your block?

SO: I'm sure it was. The women would make snacks for the kids, so every day at two o'clock you'd just, that's where you went.

KL: How many people would go, do you think?

SO: A lot, most of the kids. Did you go, too?

MS: I don't... I'm not sure.

SO: Well, that was something to look forward to every day.

MS: Seemed like you were younger, you [inaudible].

SO: Well, no. No, I was starving, so, yeah. [Laughs]

KL: Did you leave school to go to snack time or were you home?

SO: I don't recall. Maybe it was the summertime. I'm not sure.

KL: Do you remember celebrating holidays in Manzanar? Did you do anything different for Christmas or birthdays or New Year's?

SO: Just the pig's head there, it was on the platter. That's about all I remember for special occasions. But no one celebrated Christmas or birthdays or anything, nothing. Your birthday just came and went, that was it.

KL: Well, do you, are there other things that you wanted to ask about Manzanar?

AL: I had a couple of things, but I'm going to ask you through Kristen's mouth. One was how had your father, if your father had changed at all in physical appearance, like when you first saw him. Had he aged, did he look the same? Any changes? And also, his reunion with your mother and her life changed because he was back. So what he looked like and how they reunited and how her life changed.

MS: I remember him to look the same, and maybe that's because he was still young, maybe. And with Mama, I don't recall any of that. I'm sure she was happy, but we all were.

AL: Did her life improve socially after he came back? Were people, you said people had ostracized her because he was not there, did your family's social life change at all, or did you pretty much keep to yourself?

MS: Yeah, it was pretty much to herself.

SO: No. Well, it was after we --

MS: You know, with the family.

SO: Well, after we moved to Block 8, she was part of the, you know, Block 8.

KS: So she had a social life even without --

SO: Yes, yes, she was accepted. But I don't know how it was after he came home.

MS: I think it was just the same.

KL: You think they both had a social life?

MS: I don't know if you'd call it a social life. You know, just living amongst the other people.

SO: But she was singing. She was singing.

MS: Oh, she was singing?

SO: Singing, yeah, she was performing.

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 2012 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.