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RP: Did you, did you develop any, any relationships with any of the staff at the Children's Home Society in the, in the time that you were there? Was there anybody that you connected with who was sort of maybe a surrogate father or mother figure to you?

DB: I'm gonna have to correct and then answer the question. Because what I understood was my original family, did I establish a relationship with them?

RP: Oh, let me rephrase the question.

DB: I wish you would.

RP: At the Children's Home Society orphanage, did you, were, was there anybody there at the orphanage that kind of took you under their wing? You might consider as a sort of a mother or father figure that was perhaps very caring for you? Anybody who sticks out in your mind?

DB: Only, only as a figure. There were several, we called them nurses, but they weren't nurses. But they wore uniforms like a nurse. And there were a couple there that were I would say more loving than the others. And so yes I tried to identify with those people. Then if you want to move up into the next level or my life, which is Children's orphanage in Manzanar, then there's a, a figurehead and a person that was very influential.

RP: Were, when, also when you were at the, the Society orphanage, was there any effort to place you in a foster home during that time?

DB: I don't know that it was a foster home, as the definition of foster home, that as I understood it over the years was placement of a child with the intention of adoption. And I had been placed in several families, but I don't know whether their intent was care or adoption. But, I was placed in several different homes at various times by the Children's Home Society. They placed me in the first, one of the homes that I was in, where there were two of us assigned, and I was quite a bit younger -- you're probably not interested in this, but anyhow, you'll have to bear with me 'cause I started it. -- I got my first lesson in smoking cigarettes. The other person in the home was about four years older than I was. So he took me out behind, actually the garage, and taught me how to smoke. No, he taught me to inhale and I inhaled too much. I never wanted to smoke again. Never wanted to smoke again. So he, he did me a real favor. But that was a product of an adoptive placement.

RP: So what was, what do you recall about your, your feelings about being in an orphanage, in that orphanage, the Children's Home Society? Do you remember?

DB: No I don't remember any particular thing. no.

RP: And you said earlier that there was, we were together but there wasn't a sense of cohesion there. There was, there was no particular kid that you kind of bonded with.

DB: That's, that's true.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2009 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.