Densho Digital Archive - George Matsumoto Interview (denshovh-mgeorge

<Begin Segment 21>

KP: And the other thing that you talked briefly about was, you talked about getting your high school diploma after you came to camp, also your high school letters. You also mentioned briefly that you carried on correspondence with former teachers.

GM: Oh, yes.

KP: And what kind of connection, did that kind of keep you connected with your community?

GM: Yeah.

KP: And how did that work and how did that, how did that make you feel?

GM: They, my teachers told me that study was the only thing that I could do, so first thing I did was when they established the library I was first in line. They got the books from donations and sometimes they just, some libraries, they'd just throw out old books, so I just, we just latched onto those. And some of 'em, I used to buy paper, paperback books used to be a quarter and I used to have a stack of 'em, but my sister kind of, I think, took over. They're kind of her heirlooms now.

KP: And did you continue your education in camp?

GM: Yeah.

KP: What did, what'd you study?

GM: Well, they, after high school and junior high school and grammar school got started they started Manzanar Junior College. It wasn't accredited, so even though I went to, took courses, I wasn't able to use any of that later on, but we had professors and instructors that were former UCLA and other schools' instructors.

KP: Were these internees?

GM: Yeah. And there was a Dr. Kodani, he taught me zoology, so it was kind of interesting. And then there was a Suzuki, two Suzukis, brother and sister. One of them taught me German, still have the book here. And the other one taught me physics, (math) physics and there was no chemistry, but, we didn't have any equipment.

KP: Did you, did you go on with school after camp? Like did you go back to, go to college?

GM: Oh, yes.

KP: And how did those, how did those experiences in Manzanar help you?

GM: Well, I was able to, since I was older, I was thirteen years out of high school when I went back, that I was more mature than average so I had more experience and I was able to write different things about my life that kids right out of high school didn't have access to.

KP: And you said you couldn't get accreditation for the classes you took in Manzanar.

GM: Yeah, it wasn't --

KP: But did they help you at all when you went to college? How did they help you?

GM: Well, I think most of it, it was from a good high school education. We had good teachers in Santa Monica High School, and first thing we had to do is to take entrance exam and I never studied this essay and all this stuff, but I passed. And there was an English requirement, too, and some people couldn't pass the entrance exam for English and they had to take what they called "dumbbell English," and one engineering student, he was brilliant. He was getting' all As, except he couldn't pass that "dumbbell English." After three semesters he finally passed.