<Begin Segment 7>

RP: Now, you mentioned that there were other older orphans that had some struggles at the Children's Village. Specific people that you know?

CT: I knew a Nadine Kodani and she was a troubled teenager, but she was so kind to me because I, I got a whipping in front of everybody in that Catholic boarding school after we left and we were all sent into that environment, and I don't know what I did, but I must've misbehaved, so that bitch -- oh, excuse my language -- she, in front of everybody, the whole school, she turned me over and gave me a whipping. That was so humiliating. It was just uncalled for, so I was glad to get out of that place. That was, I guess that was a place that they put you until they could put you in a home, but that's all I remember of that place.

RP: Were there any older orphan kids kind of took you under their wing?

CT: Nadine was one of them, and the, I mean, I remember Nadine. She was always so kind and everything and I tried to get a hold of her, but I couldn't contact her. And somebody had just told me yesterday that she refused the, the reparation money. I don't know why or anything like that. I didn't even know I was gonna get any reparation money until... see, I was married to a Caucasian, so I was not in the Japanese community and some friends of mine said, "Celeste, did you know?" And says, "Well, write to the archives and all this," so I did and then they sent me my check.

RP: What about the case of orphans like Dennis Bambauer who were hapas, half Caucasian, half Japanese? Their struggles were a little different than yours.

CT: Yes. Dennis, I only know of what I've read about Dennis, okay, but he was, they said he was much taller than the other children. He was taunted terribly, and he said he only stayed there for a short time. He wasn't there the entire time, but he could tell you his story.

RP: You don't, you didn't have any connection with him at all at the Village?

CT: I had no... no. Not, not during the, not at Children's Village. I didn't even know him. I just know Dennis afterwards, when we met for different meetings.

RP: I was curious to know, what was school like for you at Manzanar?

CT: Well, school, I thought, I became paranoid, of course, but I thought that they used to divide us in dumb, average, bright, like that. And I was in the average, but they said that, "If you can answer these questions then you could go into the bright." So they would ask us questions, the whole class, and we'd raise our hand like that and they would never pick the children from the Village. They always picked the people who were in, had mothers and fathers, and so I thought, and I could answer every one of those questions and I said, god, I said, look, they're not picking any of the people in the Village. They're picking only the outsiders, so naturally I thought it was a form of discrimination. And after that I just moved on. But I remember my schooling.

RP: What kind of student, you said they put you in average --

CT: Oh, I was, I was not a good student. I fooled around. I loved to, I loved extracurricular activity. I passed, but I was not, I was not a scholar. And where Annie, my best friend, Annie Sakamoto, was a scholar. She was tops in her class all through grammar school, through college, where I wasn't. I was a C average, but I never applied myself either. I was more interested in having fun than anything, and I still am. [Laughs] Now, my husband, he was, bless his heart, he was top student in his class and I don't know why he chose me as a partner in life. But he did.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2009 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.