Densho Digital Archive
Manzanar National Historic Site Collection
Title: Mary Jean Spallino Interview
Narrator: Mary Jean Spallino
Interviewer: Rose Masters
Location: Lake Forest, California
Date: May 20, 2015
Densho ID: denshovh-smary_3-01-0012

<Begin Segment 12>

RM: What can you tell us about the military police at Manzanar?

MS: Not much.

RM: You didn't know any of them?

MS: Yes. I knew... Ralph Merritt was our director, and I knew his son Pete. He was not with the MP next door, but he was hired by the WRA. And he was part of that, but other than that, I can't tell you, but he was there the full length of the time until the closing down.

RM: Yeah, I think I saw a little note that he wrote to you also in here, in 1946, from Pete Merritt. Maybe we'll talk about that later. I wanted to ask about other people. I'm going to hand you a photo if you don't mind just holding it up, and this is you and Janet Goldberg, yeah. And would you mind putting that up so that the camera can see what we're talking about? Does that work? How's that?

KL: That's good.

RM: Okay. So this is Mary Jean and this is Janet Goldberg. And can you tell us about Janet Goldberg?

MS: Well, yeah, she was a great gal. She was a very forceful person, and she could kind of take over any situations, and never at a loss for words. And she was a great gal, I liked Janet.

RM: Do you remember what she taught?

MS: Uh-uh, I don't. But she'd be one of these... she'd be one of these lawyer advocates nowadays, you know. [Laughs] She was really something else. There were two girls there, they were like Mutt and Jeff. I can't think of their names, I liked them so much. I haven't thought about 'em a for a long time, they roomed together, too.

RM: How many women were young and not yet married that were teaching at Manzanar?

MS: Well, most of the women were not married, they wouldn't be there. A couple of times I think there was a husband and wife, but there weren't many married couples as teachers. There were married couples there that worked for the WRA, but they weren't teachers. I don't remember many married people. There were women who had been married, but maybe they were divorced or widowed or something like that.

RM: I'm curious about what the social scene was like for you and people like Janet, young women.

MS: Well, not much, not much. You worked and you prepared your lessons, and the weekends you would go to the dances in Independence and that's about it. So there wasn't a lot of social, I don't remember a lot of social life. But you were up early, you were teaching, you had your dinner, you prepared your lessons, you'd go to bed. I don't remember a lot of social life.

RM: Can you tell us about those weekend dances in Independence? Do you remember where they were held?

MS: I don't remember, I really don't. but some of 'em must have been kind of wild because I remember going to one, and I wore a bikini.

RM: What? [Laughs]

MS: Yes, I went as Eve.

RM: Was there an Adam?

MS: No. But, so there had, it's funny that you mention that because the bikinis had just come out a few years before and I had this cute -- I was very skinny, I had this cute, it was kind of a pink bikini. So I must have been -- I wasn't a showy person at all, I was skinny and kind of lanky. But it was some kind of a costume deal, so I wore that. So I guess I wasn't too shy.

RM: We have a photo of a woman in what looks like a type of bikini standing next to the Joshua tree in the administration area. I don't think it's you, but I was surprised to see that, but now I'm finding out there were bikinis elsewhere in Manzanar's history.

MS: Yeah, bikinis were kind in en vogue then, I think, just before the war started they became popular.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2015 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.