<Begin Segment 4>

KP: Your grade school you say was a --

MS: It was segregated. But the next year I went to the white school which was Hudson school.

KP: But in the segregated school English was spoken, of course.

MS: Yes.

KP: But I'm sure a lot of the kids were also speaking Spanish?

MS: Yeah. I don't remember anything about those children. I think my teacher was Mrs. Murphy and I think she was red headed but that's about all I remember. I don't remember those children. I do know they were Mexican but I don't know a single name or anything from that. And even in Hudson school I really don't remember people either. Because I left at the fourth grade. I do know I played clarinet in the fourth grade. And, but I don't remember schoolmates or anything like that.

KP: Do you remember what the difference was between the two schools? Did you like one better than the other?

MS: No, no, I can't even distinguish. It's kind of a blur. Yeah, and we never had children come to the house to play or I never went someplace to play at somebody else's house. So I don't recall anybody special.

KP: Sounds like your life was focused more on your family?

MS: It was, yeah.

KP: What kind of, if you look back as a child at your father, what kind of a father was he? What do you remember about him?

MS: Oh, well, he had a good sense of humor and I think both my sister and I get that from him because that's the way he was. And I think he had a sense of fairness that I think that I feel I have, too. And I don't know if they were stern or I don't know if I got into trouble. I'm sure I did but I don't remember things like that.

KP: What about your mother? What do you remember about her?

MS: Oh, well, I think she was not from a nurturing family. And so I don't feel a real sense of nurture from her either. So I just wonder how I even... I just don't... I know she cared for us and then when she just had my sister and me to look after, I know things were hard for her. But, yeah, I know she was responsible and did for us as much as she could.

KP: So your father worked the farm? What kind of farming was he doing?

MS: Well, when, well, at different times... I don't know what he farmed before the war. After the war I know there was strawberries because there was a stand at my grandmother's house. Because they lived in a -- when I went to visit them after the war the first time, they were in Temple City. And this was a house behind the house that my grandmother lived in. And he was remarried and my brother was about one and a half. I do remember strawberries, later he farmed cabbage and I don't know, maybe cauliflower, onions, things like that.

KP: Do you know if your dad owned his land?

MS: I think he leased it in Hacienda Heights. In Temple City, I think that was my grandmother's land. Yeah, I'm pretty sure. But, yeah, I don't know if he... he should have been able to own land but I don't know if he did. Not like when we were in La Puente, I don't think so.

KP: What kind of... did your dad farmed and did he take the stuff to market?

MS: Yes. I've gone to market with him. To that produce area in Los Angeles. So I do, and my sister has gone too so we both know what that's like.

KP: What was that like?

MS: Oh, well, for a child, well, it's just many people bringing produce and unloading it. And I know that he liked to go to Philippe's in Los Angeles, the restaurant that's on Alameda. So to this day we like to go to Philippe's and get those French dip sandwiches. It's just really a fun place so even now we still do it. On trips when we go together we'll stop there, so that's really a fun thing.

KP: So before the war in La Puente?

MS: La Puente, which means "bridge." You know in those days, it was just called Puente. And then now, I don't know when they put the La, but it should have always been there.

KP: In those days was there a Japanese community in that town?

MS: Not really, there were some families but not really. There were more in El Monte, Monrovia, Baldwin Park, those kind of towns.

KP: Where did you got to have your picnic, your prefecture picnic?

MS: It was, I'm not sure what town it was in, but it was a park that's west of La Puente. It could've been... I don't know.

KP: And you said for New Year's you went to families?

MS: Yeah, probably to my grandmother's. I think that's probably the place that I would remember.

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