<Begin Segment 15>

AL: And how did you get back to Bainbridge? I mean, when and how?

SK: Yeah, we took a train back. And I think it was... gosh, I don't remember too much about that. I just know that we came back. And then because my dad wanted to come back to Bainbridge, my brother felt that he had to come back and help him. And it was very difficult for him because he had a very good job and one of the jobs was, at that time, was working in the, working with television. And television was just starting to come up. And so he learned a few things and he decided that was the thing to do. So when he moved back to the island he got into the television business and he learned to fix people's television. So he was on call constantly.

AL: What was it like the first time you saw the island? When do you remember first seeing it? Were you on the ferry?

SK: I don't remember too much about that. I think I was more concerned about starting back to school. And it was, because I had heard, I had heard so many stories about the discrimination and so forth. And I was, I wasn't quite sure how the islanders would accept me.

AL: And how did they accept you?

SK: I started... I think I was in the eighth grade or ninth, ninth grade I think it was. Anyway, my sister got me enrolled in school and I remember being given a locker. And I thought okay, that's fine. And then I went over and I met with some of my former classmates. And these were kids I had grown up with, I mean, in school. They were... 'cause we started kindergarten together. And I was, I was very, very concerned, 'cause I thought, oh, they wouldn't accept me, etcetera. Well, one of the most popular fellows in the class came up to me and he says, "Welcome back." And I thought that was so neat because I thought, gosh, you know, to find the most popular kid in school come up to me and say, "Welcome back," was really something. And then...

AL: Who, who was that?

SK: Ray Lowery. And I think about him and I really appreciated what he did. And then, so I went over to meet with the kids and the, and some of the kids who had lived on the island for a long, long time or were born and raised here, they were, they said, "Welcome back," too. And I was, I thought, "Wow." You know, I was, I was really frightened about starting school. 'Cause I had heard so many stories. And I had heard kids would write on the, write on the mirrors in the girls' room, you know, about, "Japs go back to where you came from," etcetera. I mean, I had heard stories like that. But on Bainbridge it was a very different story. And I think I can give, we can give Walt Woodward, the editor, for making sure that we weren't gonna have that kind of a problem.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.