<Begin Segment 21>

KL: You said you started high school in Topaz. What can you tell us, how did school compare in Topaz to school in Half Moon Bay?

ST: Well, never going to school in, high school in Half Moon Bay, I don't know. [Laughs]

KL: Right.

ST: I had some good teachers there.

KL: In Topaz?

ST: Oh, yeah.

KL: Who stands out? What were the teachers that you remember?

ST: I forgot their names already.

MS: Many of the teachers, they weren't even credentialed teachers, but they were good in their field. I think most of the people that came out of school, when they got into regular schools, found that they were way ahead.

KL: Oh, really?

MS: Yeah. So I think the education was pretty good, even though they might have been a little bit thrown together.

KL: As a high school student in Topaz, how did your thoughts change or what did you start to consider as far as your options for adult life and for career? Do you remember?

ST: Really didn't think too much about it.

MS: I think most of the boys were already thinking about the draft and all that, so they probably didn't think too much towards what they were going to do as a career. The draft issue was hanging over them for a number of years before they actually started to enforce the draft.

KL: What were your thoughts about that, about potentially being drafted?

ST: Didn't think much of it anyway.

MS: He was pretty young yet then.

ST: Yeah. I turned eighteen in camp.

MS: They didn't even let you finish high school, either.

ST: No.

KL: Oh, so you didn't graduate from Topaz High.

ST: No.

MS: Well, he's born in December, so he's kind of on the...

KL: Yeah, yeah.

<End Segment 21> - Copyright © 2015 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.