<Begin Segment 8>

KL: This is tape two of a December 2, 2013, continuing interview with Joyce Okazaki. And we were talking some about your elementary school attendance in Manzanar, and since your mother was a teacher, I was curious to hear if you know what her take on education in Manzanar was. Did she ever make comparisons between education in Manzanar and Los Angeles?

JO: She never did, or I wasn't aware of it. She didn't have a credential, so she was given a provisional by Dr. Carter so that she could teach. Apparently, that first month of the school year, the teacher that was hired to do the PE looked at the classes and quit, so that they, Dr. Carter had to have somebody else, and she took my mother and gave her a provisional and had her teach. My mother was really very strict with the health classes. She gave tests and she really gave hard tests. Her sister was in her PE class, gave her a B. She didn't even get an A. But Mary Nomura got an A, Mary Kageyama, who was also in her class, and she got an A, because she was very good at drawing, that's what she told me. She was able to draw the insides, the heart and the stomach and all of that.

KL: What did your mom teach, what grades?

JO: She taught from seventh grade to senior year in high school, twelfth grade, both boys and girls. I don't know exactly how many students she had all together.

KL: Did she teach both years you were there?

JO: Yes, she taught both years. I looked at the records that Manzanar had of her, and it doesn't show that she taught for two years, but she did. She taught from 1942 to '44.

KL: What did she think of it? Was it what she expected?

JO: Yeah, I think because she didn't have any other experience other than student teaching, she did her student teaching, but she was not able to... no, she didn't get the job as a student teacher that you have to have for one year because they wouldn't hire her.

KL: You said she did kind of a practicum or something, I think, through her program, through the degree program, but couldn't student teach until Manzanar.

JO: Yeah. Well, I think the... while you're in school, they assign you to a certain class, and then she taught at Foshay, but it was the eight or ten weeks or two months or whatever. But then when you have to teach for a year before you could get your credential, she couldn't do that.

KL: You mentioned that your mom took sewing classes. I was curious if you took any classes other than academic ones at the school, like did you ever take any dance or violin?

JO: Well, I remember taking ballet class, but I didn't go for very long, and I don't know why. I remember signing up for ballet lessons and taking them maybe two, three times, but maybe a teacher said I was... I don't know. But anyway, that didn't continue. And the other thing I took was piano lessons. The piano was like a board with painted keys, and I don't think I liked it, so I didn't continue that.

KL: Yeah, that would be kind of unsatisfying.

JO: Yeah.

KL: Where were those classes held?

JO: Oh, in some other block far away. I remember having to walk, so it could have been, you know, across the firebreak.

KL: Was it in someone's barrack apartment or the rec. hall?

JO: No, I think the rec. hall. I think it was the rec. hall.

KL: Do you remember the ballet teacher's name?

JO: No. I don't remember any of those teachers' names.

KL: Were you part of a church congregation in Manzanar?

JO: I had to go to the Christian church Sunday school, reluctantly.

KL: What do you remember about that, except that you would rather have been elsewhere?

JO: Reluctantly. We did not like it, I guess, I don't know. It was not one of the things I was enthused about doing, I don't know why. There was nothing else to do, you know, but I just didn't like going there. And I think that was in Block 5. But I know Block 5 had my fifth grade class, so I don't know where they had the Christian church.

KL: You said your fifth grade class was in Block 5?

JO: Uh-huh, I think so, but I don't know where the third grade class was. I have no idea.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2013 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.