<Begin Segment 10>

SS: When did life begin to change? When was there some inkling that the family might have to be uprooted, that the war indeed would affect your life in Burlington?

EW: Okay, when my younger brother was, at that time, was in grade school, and he played in the band, he played the trumpet. And he was told that he could not play in the concert because we were supposed to be under curfew. And we thought that was pretty stupid, as did everybody else. So the teacher said, "Well, if I come after him, pick him up and bring him home, would that be all right?" So he was allowed to do that, but we thought, "Oh, this is getting crazy," you know.

SS: What happened next? Things didn't get better did it?

EW: No, no. Then the people in the town began to get a little bit... their prejudice would come out. And stores, one store in particular wouldn't allow us to shop there. And so little by little it came out.

SS: What were you thinking at the time? You were old enough to understand all this.

EW: Oh, I was really upset. And my sisters and brother... and how could this be happening here? We were born here, and what have we done? So, it was very traumatic.

SS: How did you cope with those, that discrimination? Did you just put on a stiff upper lip and go on?

EW: Probably. But we found out who our true friends were. And so I think that's how we learned to cope.

SS: Were there any particular instances that you still remember, that hurt?

EW: Well, I didn't have too many of those, to be truthful. We continued to go to school, people would, we got rides, people would drive us there. We carried on as normally as we could and not knowing what was going to happen. And the friends who befriended us continued to do so. And we didn't know what was going to happen.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 1996 Densho. All Rights Reserved.