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RM: How did she... it's like she had two sets of parents. Did she talk about how that felt or how'd she balance that?

PS: I asked her a little bit about that. She said the Nordquists, if she got frightened, she could run into their room and jump in bed with them. With her own family, she just had to learn to get on with it. She said there was nobody to comfort her, she just had to be strong, so nobody pampered her.

RM: So do you know, can you tell me a little bit more about her schooling in the area? You mentioned going to school with a teacher who was Papa Nordquist's daughter, but after...

PS: After she moved away, she never talks about school anymore. She never mentioned school.

RM: Did she say, before she was eight, what kind of, what the classroom was like? Was it other Japanese Americans or was it just...

PS: No, it was all white. And I actually went and visited the school. It was a one-room schoolhouse, and it had a potbelly stove, keep the room warm, hitching post out front. And all classes in one room, and it was like that even when I went.

RM: Did she remember how the other kids, did they just accept her as one of them, or was she treated differently?

PS: No, I don't think she was treated differently, she always felt like she was very comfortable there.

RM: Did she learn any, she was on a ranch, right? Did she learn, she was very young, but did she learn any skills of what was going on on the ranch, like riding horses?

PS: No. But he was a cattle rancher. She never said anything about... all she remembers is that he would take her on the covered, like a wagon, with a horse, take her downtown and buy her candy. I mean, she only remembers the good stuff.

RM: And then there was a big change when she went and lived with her own family. And you said she didn't talk about that as much.

PS: She never talked about... she used to play with Tadashi, she remember running around with him, and she said she was faster than him. And she could outsmart him even if he was eighteen months older. But she did mention one time when her mother got upset, she hit her over the head with a butcher knife, and she ran down the street with blood going down her face. And she just said... then when Papa got home and they told him, he said she must have provoked her. So there was no sympathy.

RM: What was her relationship with her older siblings?

PS: You know, she doesn't really say until she moves to Los Angeles, and then she's twelve already. So she doesn't talk about her life there so much.

RM: Do you know, you mentioned that Papa Nordquist died pretty soon after she went to live with her family. Do you know if she attended his funeral?

PS: No, 'cause she didn't even know. I don't think she found out for a while.

RM: 'Til later?

PS: Yeah.

RM: Do you know if they were a religious family? Did they go to church?

PS: No... I know my mother was a Christian, but she never talked about church or anything. More in her later...

RM: But with her own family or with the Nordquists it wasn't a tradition?

PS: No, I don't think so.

RM: So is there anything about those years from eight two twelve when she was living with your grandparents before he passed away, is there anything that she told you that I haven't asked about that time?

PS: No, only that once her father passed away, her brother was going to college in Washington, and he had to quit college and he had to come back home, 'cause somebody needed to make money or support the family, so then he came to California to find a job. And then when he found a job, then he sent for the rest of the family. And because my mother's father worked for the railroad, they could all ride the train for free. So they all came down here.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2015 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.