<Begin Segment 14>

RP: There was one experience that you had while you were attending school in Rocky Ford.

YW: Oh, when I was in the second grade we were on a field trip and on the way home from the field trip our teachers let us all stop at the ice cream store to buy some ice cream. So everybody went in and as I was going in, she wouldn't let me go in. She told me to stay out here. She says, "You wait out here and I'll bring you an ice cream cone." So she went in and brought my ice cream cone. I had to eat my ice cream cone outside by myself. And I thought, "I wonder why I can't go in the store." And I saw a sign on the window and it said, "No Japs allowed." I don't know if I could read it, but I understood that that sign had something to do with me staying outside. But I didn't ask any questions or, or, I don't know why. It's just something inside of you kind of tells you these things, I guess.

RP: This was in Rocky Ford?

YW: Uh-huh. This was Rocky Ford. And I remember I thought, "I think my teacher should have been nicer to me." And it was real interesting because she went on a cruise that summer and her cruise ship sunk and she died. And so I thought, I said, "Oh I wonder if she's getting punished because she didn't stand up for me and let me in that ice cream shop?" That thought just went right through my mind. I thought, "She's being punished."

RP: Right. There's sort of a line between stepping over and confronting that, those, that, that racism or just stepping back and accepting it.

YW: What would happen if she let me in?

RP: Right. It would have been very... strong, strong and courageous move on her part to take, for her student. She fell into line with the...

YW: I could still remember what she looks like, the teacher.

RP: Oh, what did she look like?

YW: She had this very... Ms. Jordette. I remember her name, too. Isn't that interesting?

RP: Is, was that the only store that you saw a sign like that in, or were there other...

YW: That's the only store I remember seeing the sign. But I was talking to my sister just when she was here for the funeral and she said my brother, the oldest brother, he used to have to walk his sisters to school and he would find routes where there would be no signs that says "No Japs Allowed." And I don't remember that. It's 'cause we had to come up with memories about my brother at the funeral and that was one of the memories that she had. So there must have been other signs in the windows of the stores.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.