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Did you keep in contact with your brother?
Oh
yes, yes, yes. It's interesting, he had gone to Japan and knew some
Japanese, so he ends up teaching at the MIS, the Military Intelligent
School, in Minnesota. He was one of those who went around to the camps
to recruit fellows, volunteer, and go to his school. He had a dear
friend, who was with the 442nd, and he wanted him to really switch
over to the MIS. This fellow by then was a sergeant. He said, "I
can't leave the fellows". It turned out he was killed in action.
I think my brother always felt very badly about that, "If only
he had come with me".
What did you think about the cases with Korematsu
and Hirabayashi?
At
that time I think I thought they're kind of dumb. All they had to do
was go to camp. But now, I think, I think the world of them. I think it
was something, had I been older, I think I might have supported them.
Did your family live by the motto: "Do not be
the nail sticking up"?
I'm
trying to think now what my mother would have said, if we're trying
to be too different. When I was going to college I was taking chemistry,
I was a chemistry major. She thought, "What are you doing that
for?" I should be taking a business class. In fact, in camp I
did take bookkeeping, and maybe short hand, because she thought I should
be a stenographer. I took bookkeeping, and after one session or so,
I told my mother, "This isn't what I want to do." So, she allowed
me to stop and if I wanted to go with chemistry, "Well, that's
what you want to do, you can."
So where was the rest of your family?
My
brother was my own brother, who was in the service, and then my younger
sister and I. I had an older sister who had married, and she had gone
to Japan.
So where was your stepfather?
Stepfather was with his family.
Can you tell us about that moment when you split from
him and his family?
Well,
my sister and I had left the house and we were, what we called, "school girls
live-in". She was with an American family, and I was too. So, for us
to go back and then have to live with his family was something we just didn't
want to do. I think we could have been, we were kind of nasty about
it. This is something we just don't want to do. I think back on it
now, we just pulled my mother away. Yet, I think all during camp that
Stepfather came to see my mother everyday.
I just want to go back to the camps for a second, where
was the rest of your family?
You mean the
step family?
Your brother is a step?
No. My
brother was my own brother who was in the service, and then my younger
sister and I. And then I had an older sister who had married and
she had gone to Japan. This is a duplication from above
So where was your step
father?
Stepfather was
with his family. Duplication from above
Can you tell us a little more about that moment
when you split from him and his family? Sounds like an interesting
story
My sister and I had left the house, and we were what we call "school
girls live in." She was with
an American family and I was, too. For us to go back and then have
to live with his family was something we just didn't want to do. And
we were I think kind of nasty about it. This is something we just don't
want to do. I think back on it now, we just pull my mother away. And
yet, I think, all during camp that Stepfather came to see my mother
everyday. Duplication from above
Were you close with your stepfather?
No.
Did you like him?
Alright,
yeah.
What was your relationship
with him like?
No confrontations
if that's what you mean.
I have a step mother also.
He was good
to us, I must say. He was the one who took my sister and I into
San Jose to get our clothes or whatever we needed. I had a tonsillectomy
and he was the one who sat beside me, I think. So, he was
very kind. It was just his kids we couldn't stand.
What did you say to the social workers in regards to the separation from your family, and why did they approve it?
My sister and I were both au pairs, and had left. We just didn't want to be back with them again. The social workers must have agreed.
And your mother as well?
My mother listened.
Do you know why you were moved from Pomona to Heart Mountain?
All we knew was that we were going to be moved to a more permanent place.
Were you glad to leave?
I think so.
Can you talk about the differences physically between Pomona and Heart Mountain, the geography?
Oh, the geography.
Also the buildings.
The buildings are just that—Heart Mountain was way out there in the middle of nowhere. The only thing growing was sagebrush, and the windstorms, the dust storms. We were assigned a small room, which meant an end. We were on the end, where it was open, so we got all the dust.
Did you have a tonsillectomy as an older adolescent, or
as a young woman?
As an adolescent. I must have been thirteen—fourteen because we
came back from Japan when I was thirteen, yes.
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