<Begin Segment 14>

KL: Was it a commercial bus that picked you up at the Satos?

ST: Yeah, I guess so.

KL: Would you describe that scene? How did you feel, what were people doing as the bus came to get you and as you drove to Tanforan? What were people's demeanors?

MS: No idea.

ST: Kind of in a haze, you know. "What's going on?"

KL: Had you guys been to the Tanforan race track before?

ST: Oh, no.

MS: Never even heard of it.

ST: No.

KL: What were your first impressions on arriving there?

MS: Interesting, huh? Like we say, I think we were lucky that we had such a large family, because at least we got to live in...

ST: Barracks.

MS: ...a barrack, whereas a lot of the small families, they had to live in the stables. Those poor people, they couldn't even wash the floors and things because the smell would come up through the boards. And also they gave us those bags to go fill with hay, which was our mattresses. And our sister Tsuki, she came down with an allergy attack. So I don't know what she ended up sleeping on, but she couldn't sleep on that hay, because boy, did she get a bad hay fever attack. [Laughs] We were only there for about, what, four and a half months.

KL: What was a typical day at Tanforan?

MS: Kind of goofing off. We weren't really having to do much. We went to school.

ST: Gathered your utensils, go to the...

MS: Mess hall.

ST: Mess hall.

MS: Yeah, there wasn't too much to do at that time. People would come to visit, which was nice. Have to go to the grandstand to visit with them.

KL: So they could come inside when you had visitors?

ST: Yeah.

MS: Yeah.

ST: To the grandstand, you know.

KL: Who came to see you?

ST: Classmates.

MS: I think I mentioned before, Galen Wolf, the painter, he also came to visit, which was really nice of him. And Manuel Sousa, he used to be the scoutmaster, and Akira and Chick were in the Scouts for a long time, and he came to visit them. One of Chick's good friends came. Chick was the president of his class, and he was in his senior year. And we went to camp in, what was it, beginning of May, I think it was. So he didn't get to finish his high school. But one of his friends came and brought him his diploma, and his girlfriend and this other girl came with him, and they were Tsuki's good friends, so at least they got to visit. So that was nice. I don't remember anybody else.

ST: Hmm?

MS: I don't remember anyone else coming. In the short duration that we were there, that was pretty nice that they did come to visit.

KL: Did you have any contact with Chiura Obata or his art school at Tanforan?

ST: He might have been my art teacher.

KL: You took art classes?

ST: I think it was his name. [Laughs]

KL: What can you tell us about the art classes?

ST: Well, we used egg yolk or something like that, you know, and made the paint real shiny. And he displayed one of my paintings when we had a reunion one time.

KL: A Tanforan reunion?

ST: Yeah.

KL: Where were the classes held?

ST: In the barracks.

KL: Did you always have the same teacher?

ST: Oh, different teachers for different classes, you know. Chemistry class was strictly out of the books, no equipment of any kind.

MS: This is in Tanforan, or Topaz?

ST: Topaz.

MS: Oh, yeah?

ST: Oh, you're talking about Tanforan yet?

KL: Uh-huh.

ST: Oh. We didn't go to school in Tanforan.

MS: I did.

ST: Huh?

MS: I did.

ST: Yeah?

MS: Yeah. Just for a short while. That's my first experience with a class with nothing but Japanese, and I thought the boys were the meanest. Yeah, because my first day there, they were throwing rocks at me. That's why Mom finally let me stay home.

ST: Oh, yeah?

MS: Yeah.

MS: I only went to school for a couple of weeks and then for the rest of the time, she let me stay home.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2015 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.