Densho Digital Archive - Mary Jean Spallino Interview (denshovh-smary

<Begin Segment 3>

RM: And then what high school, did you say you went to Hollywood High?

MS: Hollywood High.

RM: I'm curious about what the makeup of your classes was like. Was it all Caucasian or was it more mixed up?

MS: It was Hollywood, so we had more of a mixture than probably any other place outside of New York, because they would come here because of the films, and of course we had the, down here in Orange County, we had the Japanese workers, and we had... I only remember two or three black people until I got to UCLA. And when I was at UCLA, why, then it was Jackie Robinson and Kenny Washington. So by that time, it was more mixed, and of course a major university would be mixed. But it was primarily, when I'm growing up, primarily Caucasian or people, like we had neighbors from France, they had come over after World War I. And we once had neighbors from Poland who had come in after World War I, but primarily Caucasian.

RM: Did you have any Japanese American students in your class with you?

MS: Yes, very few. But my best girlfriend in the second grade was Toshi, Toshiko, and then they moved away. And, of course, there were Japanese around because of the farms around and everything. So I was used to them. I can understand in the Midwest and the East, probably never had seen a Japanese. And I think that's one reason that I was amenable going to Manzanar, because I knew Japanese and I liked them, and I had been to Japan.

RM: Do you remember Toshiko's last name?

MS: Oh, no, honey, I don't.

RM: I know, it's such a long time ago, but I thought I would check just in case.

MS: And you know, she pops into my mind -- we were just little kids, she pops into my mind so much, and you wonder whatever happened.

RM: I'm curious to know what your favorite subjects in high school were.

MS: I always liked, we called it social studies, and I was a language major, and I started Latin in the eighth grade. And then I also took German, so all though college, German was my minor. So I think it was the languages and the social studies. I liked English, though, too, I had wonderful English teachers. I liked them all. The only problem I had was in the sciences, I had to take both physics and chemistry. Chemistry was okay, but physics, I had a hard time, and I think the teacher just knew I was struggling and passed me on a C. [Laughs] I think of him, he was the sweetest little, he was a small man. He was a kind man, he was a good teacher.

RM: What about your Latin teacher?

MS: I had a wonderful Latin teacher in high school, Esther Abbott. I had her for four years. Well, no, high school I had three years, I had her.

RM: Do you... I'm curious because today it's really rare if you take Latin in high school.

MS: Well, they're not teaching it in most of the high schools now.

RM: Right.

MS: But it was quite... it was popular in those years.

RM: It was more common then.

MS: Yeah, in those years, the '30s. And that's how I made my living. I taught at... until '67, so it was around until then.

RM: What years... well, maybe I should just ask, what year did you graduate from Hollywood High?

MS: From Hollywood High? '37.

RM: And then you mentioned that you went to UCLA.

MS: And I was there, I graduated four years later, that would be '41, and then I stayed on and got my master's degree and my teaching credential. So I was, I exited UCLA in 1942, and that's when the superintendent came from Independence to interview people to be teachers at Manzanar.

RM: I want to ask you a little bit more about that in just a second. But first, if you could just tell me a little more about what UCLA was like in the late '30s, early '40s.

MS: Oh, it was very large to me. Well, it was a major college. We had a large population, and I don't know, it just offered any subject that you would think of.

RM: Do you remember if you had any friends in college who were Japanese Americans?

MS: If I had any friends in college, what?

RM: Who were Japanese Americans.

MS: No, I didn't. I don't recall any. I don't recall many at UCLA. There might have been, but they weren't in my classes. I would have the Latin class and I could have the German, and of course I had the English, and then whatever else. So they were probably in another area, so I don't remember much of a Japanese population.