<Begin Segment 10>

AL: Yeah, and I apologize for bouncing around a little bit.

AS: Uh-huh.

AL: And also if you guys have questions please chime in. When, when you were at Miss Stuart's you said you did chores. You would be what, by that time about the second grade?

AS: Yes, uh-huh.

AL: Okay, where did you go to school?

AS: Bushnell Way School, that was a little community, very small school. It was like four blocks from where we lived.

AL: How, how do you say that?

AS: Bushnell, B-U-S-H-N-E-L-L. And then Bushnell and then Way.

AL: Oh, Bushnell Way, okay.

AS: Yes, uh-huh.

AL: School. Was that a public school?

AS: Yes.

AL: Okay. How was your behavior there?

AS: Good. I got, I got good grades, outstanding behavior.

AL: Uh-huh. What was your favorite subject?

AS: Drawing, art.

AL: Why do you think your behavior was, was excellent there and not so good at Manzanar?

AS: Oh, because I think I was insecure. I mean, there's a whole bunch of kids and no father figure, no real mother figure. And, like I said, and then I recall like at night the flood lights, the, the guards' floodlight would sweep through the windows and my being afraid, hiding underneath the covers. So I'm sure that was kind of unsettling, too.

AL: This was at Manzanar?

AS: Correct.

AL: Did you ever see the guards?

AS: No. All I know that there was a guard... 'cause they were high. So I did not see them or their guns. But I just recall the guardhouses. I think there were like maybe four or six of 'em around the camp.

AL: Yeah, eventually there were eight total, but they started out with four. The, the lights sweeping through your barracks, were they doing that intentionally, you think?

AS: Well, I think just to keep guard they would sweep over... I don't know if they did it every hour through the whole camp. Because after all I guess we were internees, prisoners.

AL: What did you think it was? Did you know it was a guard light?

AS: No. I didn't. I just, I just recall that there were just like these searchlights sweeping through the, through the window, through the camp at night.

AL: I can imagine that would be very scary...

AS: Uh-huh.

AL: ...as a child. Going back to Miss Stuart's place, and you said that your behavior improved because you felt maybe more of a sense of security?

AS: Uh-huh.

AL: What was it that gave you a sense of security there?

AS: Well the fact that we, well, Miss Stuart had her mother so that was kind of like a family. She didn't have men in her life. But then there was other children. But we were not structured. We went to school, we had a routine at school. The teachers... so it was more of a structured life than in the camp.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2009 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.