<Begin Segment 24>

RP: What was it like going back into public school after Manzanar school?

HM: Well...

RP: No comparison.

HM: Like I said, I went to three different, you know, seventh grades. And there was some prejudice but not that much, not that much. I felt that from the teacher more than the kids, really. He would mention all these kind of things and I thought, "What does he have to say that for?" But I was only there for a month, so. After that, you know, normal.

RP: Did you, did you share your camp stories with your kids?

HM: Are we talking... oh gosh.

RP: When they were old enough to...

HM: They know everything. We believed in telling them everything of what happened to us because we were so meek they let us, we let them push us around without saying a peep. So our kids know everything. Yeah, I wasn't ashamed of it or anything. I just wanted them to know what we went through, that's all. So they know, all four of 'em.

RP: Do you even, you even gave them books and things?

HM: Oh I've bought several books. But, it's up to them to get what, you know... I think one of the main ones I got for all of them was the cartoon one, you know, about Poston. I got one of those for all of them. And then...

RP: Block 2-11.

HM: And then one of... yeah, something like that. 'Cause of the cartoons in it, sort of, it tells a story but it's still sort of funny. And I think I got one other maybe that I thought would be good for them to have.

RP: They, some of them came with you when you visited Manzanar last...

HM: No.

RP: No.

HM: I want, I wanted them to go but, you know, they always have their excuses. I really wanted them to go once just to see but, especially now that you have that nice, you know, not visitation, what's that? What's that center?

RP: Interpretive center?

HM: Yeah. Interpretive center. Since you have that, you know, they would get more out of it than us saying oh we did this, we did that, or... they might go one of these days. I hope so. I hope so.

<End Segment 24> - Copyright © 2010 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.