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AL: Do you have any physical recollections of -- you talked about going into the, the room where the babies were. Any recollections of the physical layout of the Children's Village? Like where you slept, where you ate?

AS: Apparently we slept in the small children's portion. And then we had like the dining room. I don't even remember eating with other children. All I remember is the little crib.

AL: Would you know if the kids were segregated by age at all? Like the younger, did the older kids take care of the younger kids? Anything like that?

AS: Well, I think they played with them. But they didn't, because they had like caregivers, they were adults, taking care of the kids. But the older children might have mingled with the smaller kids and played with them. Because when we had our reunion in 1991 in Rosemead, they remembered me. I was absolutely astonished. How could they remember? They said, "Oh, you were just small, cute, like a monkey, skinny arms and legs, dark skinned." But they remembered me and that's, that's what surprised, that they remembered me after all these years.

AL: I've heard some people say that the Children's Village was their family. Or the only family they knew or the first family they knew. When you look back at the time that you had there and the people you were with, how do you feel about it? I mean, do you feel like they're your family? Do you feel like they were a bunch of strangers you lived with? What's your emotions about that group?

AS: They were just a bunch of people that took care of us. I had no difference between, like, we were orphans or, or the reasons we were put in the orphanage or Children's Village. I have no idea.

AL: As a child, did you have any sort of sense of difference that your family was different than other kids you knew?

AS: No, we were just all mingled.

AL: Uh-huh.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2009 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.