<Begin Segment 12>

RP: Did you see any, did you detect any differences between the school system at Manzanar and the school system at Topaz?

SS: Well, I would say in Manzanar it... well, maybe it was because of my involvement, I was sort of... it got to the point when I was working in the hospital, school was secondary, incidental. And it was, you know, just a school, you go to class, you did your homework and so forth. Then in (Topaz) I got more involved, not only with the students, but also with the teachers, you know, like Mr. Evans, Mr. Phillips, Barbara Loomis, several of the teachers, and so I had, you know, more interaction with them. I noticed that also the teachers had more, from my perspective, had closer interaction with the students. In other words, I think, in Topaz there's a closer relationship between us evacuees and the staff and so forth. And so that's the other aspect of it, I mentioned that J.P. Phillips, they gave me my middle name when I left camp. When I left camp, or at the end of the school year I mentioned Mrs. Lyle, she handwrote two letters of recommendation to take with me. I think she knew that I was leaving camp at that time and I still have it, I've never had occasion to use them but I still have those letters.

So there's that... well, I think in both, particularly in Topaz, but even at Manzanar, that feeling of compassion, shall we say. At Manzanar, Mrs. Jean Kramer, who was our Latin teacher and I think she taught something else, took my Latin class and I think had four or five students in it, she arranged to, for us with her mess hall to prepare sack lunches and took us out on a picnic, you know, that creek out there on the outside. I think that was sort of reflective of the type of people that came to the camp. Manzanar... or Topaz there was much more closer... I mentioned one of the nurses at Manzanar, I think she was British, and I'm thinking today, if she was British how could she work in the U.S., but anyway this nurse spoke with a British accent and had been in Burma for a number of years and she tried to teach me Burmese. [Laughs] Oh, speaking of, you know, you asked me so see if I could find some pictures, I couldn't find any pictures of camp, but I did find... this is after camp. That's Thelma McBride, she was a nurse, apparently, I thought she was at Manzanar but I found out she was at Rohwer, and the fellow in the wheelchair is Peter Kondo, do you know him?

RP: I know of him. Go ahead and share that story.

SS: Well, I met Peter at Manzanar and he was a paraplegic, he had been in an automobile accident, originally from Los Angeles, and so he was quartered or living at the hospital, and that's where I first met him. And so we... in my spare time at the hospital I used to spend most of the time there with him, and we got to be very... I think he looked on me almost like his son. He had a son but he was divorced and so forth and he had no one close, and I think he treated me like his son actually. So we became close and when I left Manzanar we kept in touch and I don't know, is there his writing on... oh, yeah, you notice he'd write, he had to use two hands to write and so it was very laborious for him to write and so forth. So I kept in touch with him, and for some reason he was apparently moved from Manzanar to Rohwer and I guess that was... I guess they were closing down Manzanar or something. And the nurse at Rohwer, Thelma McBride, well, Peter didn't want to go back to LA because he had no place to go. So Thelma took him with her to Louisiana, and at this point, and she was the head nurse, became a head nurse at a small hospital there in Church Point, Louisiana. And we kept in touch, or I kept in touch with Peter, and when I was finished, completed my training at army officer candidate school at Fort Benning and I was commissioned and I was still stationed at Fort Benning pending overseas assignment, Peter wrote to me, it was, oh, probably about September of 1947 and I was still awaiting orders to go overseas. And he asked me to come out and take care of him for a week so that Thelma could get a rest, you know, and so I arranged, I took a leave and I went to Church Point and I spent a week with him at the hospital, it was a country hospital. And they set aside a room for me, a private room, and there is a Thelma and myself, the three of us.

RP: Hold that picture up.

KP: Just hold it back up where you're sitting, just sit back in your chair.

SS: I can send you a... I digitized some of these.

RP: Do you want to sit back, Jim and just show us.

KP: Hold it up towards the camera.

SS: Okay.

KP: So it's you and Thelma?

SS: Thelma and Peter.

KP: And can you show me the cover?

RP: Drop the cover down.

KP: That's his handwriting right there?

RP: So he sent you those pictures?

SS: Yes.

KP: Thank you.

RP: Peter was quite a ball player in the early days?

SS: Yes, he was, yes. There's a newspaper article about my visit too.

KP: That would be great to get a copy of that.

SS: But anyway, so I don't recall from that, that was in October of 1947 and I shipped out in December '47 to Japan and somewhere along the line we kept, well, we kept in touch, or Peter and I kept in touch, but then he passed away and after he passed away, Thelma continued. And so we exchanged Christmas cards every year until she passed away, oh, about ten years ago. And in her letters I could tell that she had kept contact with many of her associates and people that she had met in the camp, and in her annual letter she'd mention that so and so had visited her. And I always wanted to go back to Louisiana but I never got a chance to see her again after 1947. But again, an example of the type of people that came to the camps.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2010 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.