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KL: You know, people talk about like the Bainbridge Island block or the Terminal Island block or certain blocks have kind of reputations or defining characteristics, did Block 12 have any sort of identity, do you think, that made it unique?

JO: I don't really recall. I know that there were not a lot of kids my age in the block. There was only two young girls in the block, but they were older than me. One was two years older, and one was a year older. So I made friends with them, because girls kind of stick together, and we played.

KL: So maybe it was the quiet block. [Laughs]

JO: Yeah, there may have been boys there, but I don't know. I think all the boys were in Block 11, because my husband was in Block 11. I didn't know him then. He was in Block 11 and this other fellow that was my mortal enemy was in Block 11.

KL: What made him your mortal enemy?

JO: Well, it all started at Maryknoll, and I was in second grade, and I was kind of smart, so the teacher, the nun, told me to be a tutor for this one kid who was from Japan and couldn't read English. So I would sit there and help him read English, and his name was Kazuo Kitani. I'm giving him more publicity than he deserves. [Laughs]

KL: I know, he could be immortalized in this.

JO: Anyway, I remember the name because then, that was in Maryknoll. In Manzanar, I was, of course, I left second grade in February, didn't go to school, any school at all. I notice that I have pictures of people in some kind of school situation, but I don't know if that was Manzanar, where parents and volunteers were teaching kids outdoors. But when I went to third grade when school started up, and of course, this is a big thing, but I think it all started up after Dr. Genevieve Carter was hired, and she hired a bunch of teachers and started school in the fall. And I don't know when school started, but it started in the fall. And I went to third grade. I said, "I'm not going to second grade," I told my mother, "I'm going to third grade." So I went to third grade, and third grade was fine. I had Mrs. Sandridge for my teacher, she was really nice; I really liked her. And Mrs. Sandridge was the wife of Jay Sandridge who worked with my father. But anyway, Mrs. Sandridge was really nice. And so I was in third grade, and by golly, this kid, Kazuo Kitani was in the same class with me. [Laughs] He used to tease me a lot, I guess. But I just proceeded along, and I don't know when, but they gave a test, I don't know what kind of test, it might have been some kind of an intelligence test, IQ test, and they tested everybody. And they told me that I scored high enough that I could just go to summer school for fourth grade and go into fifth grade. I already skipped -- I was supposed to be in second grade I guess, and instead I was already in third grade. So they told me I could go into... so I said, "I'm gonna do that," I told my mother. "I'm gonna do it." And so my mother let me, and I was in fourth grade in the summer time. I don't remember who the teacher was.

KL: Did everybody take summer school, or was it optional?

JO: It was optional. I think it was optional, it was optional for me. You know, if I went to fourth grade summer school, then I could go to fifth grade. What a good thing, so I said, "Okay," and I did that. Well, Kazuo Kitani did the same thing. [Laughs] So there he was in summer school fourth grade and my fifth grade class. But before that, while I was in third grade, there was a big pageant. I don't know if you've heard of that pageant, but it was a big pageant where all the elementary schools were involved, all classes. And it was called... I don't know, what was it called? It was called the Whirlwind or something. And we were assigned to do... we learned all of the patriotic songs, but in addition we learned other songs about America, and that's where I learned Beautiful Dreamer, no, Beautiful Ohio. We sang that song, "Beautiful Ohio in dreams again I see visions of what used to be," and some other songs. But we were, as a class, assigned to learn the Irish jig, and, of course, my partner was Kazuo Kitani, terrible. Anyway, we were practicing, and he would just do nasty things to me like squeeze my hand, and sometimes it's okay, but once he really did it hard. He did something to me that really hurt me, and so I cried, and the lady said, "Why are you crying?" I said, "He hurt me," and we got dismissed early and the boys had to stay and practice. And he really hated me after that. [Laughs] And then the pageant went off really well. I really enjoyed that, we got to sing as a group, all those songs we learned.

KL: Where did you present it?

JO: In some outdoors, it must have been outdoors. But I don't know how we did the Irish jig outdoors, but I guess we did, because everybody was there, I think, I don't know. But it was fun to do that.

KL: You said that you think Mr. Sandridge worked with your father?

JO: I think so. I'm not really sure, but I think he knew my father.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2013 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.