<Begin Segment 18>

RM: So you had talked about your mom and Paul's plan to make it possible for her to get a divorce, which was to go up to Reno and get residency in Nevada. When did that take place?

PS: I think I had to be at least three or four years old by that time.

RM: So this is before you were going to school in Burbank, okay. So they were already married at that point.

PS: Right. Because when he enrolled us, he enrolled us as Sakamotos. That's how come we never knew we were Morikawas. Because you didn't have to produce a birth certificate to go to school then.

RM: So now long was it between him meeting your mom and the two of then getting, eventually, married?

PS: Well, when I came out of camp I was eighteen months old, so it's got to be like a couple of years, year and half, couple of years, that my mother was on her own.

RM: Then you were talking about moving down to, away from Burbank into downtown L.A. area?

PS: Downtown, like Thirty-ninth or Fifty-ninth city, somewhere around there. Probably closer to, let's say, the coliseum over there. But I don't remember that apartment.

RM: And then you moved on to Third and Flower, and what was your mom doing and what was Paul doing at that time?

PS: She was a seamstress, and he was working, I think he was working for Big 5 then.

RM: Oh, the...

PS: Sporting goods. It was a war surplus store then.

RM: I didn't know that.

PS: Because before, when he first came out of camp, he was going to be a gardener, because a lot of the Japanese were gardeners. [Laughs] Because my Uncle Ben ended up a gardener. But I think he got a job at Big 5.

RM: Did either your mom or Paul ever end up going to college?

PS: No. My dad, when he went to night school to learn how to make furniture.

RM: That's a good skill to have. We have just a couple more minutes, so I guess maybe if you want to talk about the difference between the Burbank school, and when you moved downtown and you were suddenly in a school that I'm guessing had a much more diverse group of people, how was that transition for you?

PS: Well, I don't remember there ever being any prejudice there. I don't remember kids calling me names there anymore. I just, I was like a kid, that's all, having a good time. I remember playing, and my sister and I going to the library together.

RM: Kristen, do you have any questions about this time before we end this tape?

KL: I don't. I thought you were looking because we were thinking both were going to want be, like, tell us about the library.

RM: [Laughs] We both have affection for libraries, so maybe we should ask about that.

PS: Oh, I remember we used to go there every two weeks, because you check out a book every two weeks. My sister would always check out ten books, I didn't quite check out ten books. She would finish her ten books, I was lucky if I could finish two of mine. But it was still fun to go to the library. And I remember our school used to have dances, you would learn a dance in school and then we would do the dance at the library.

RM: Oh, a public performance.

PS: Yeah.

RM: Wow. And which library was this?

PS: It was the main one downtown.

RM: The main downtown library? Wow.

PS: And we knew how to use all those little drawers and go to whatever room, it was great. It was a real adventure, 'cause it was on Fifth and Flower, I think, isn't it?

RM: I don't remember its exact address.

PS: But it's absolutely beautiful, have you been in there now?

RM: Yes.

PS: It's gorgeous. But I remember my sister and I walking there after school, it was fun.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2015 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.