<Begin Segment 18>

SN: So, when you, I'm just going to backtrack a little bit. You described the barrack and the cot, and you said earlier that families were allowed, was it one suitcase and one duffel bag of bedding?

SH: Yes.

SN: And that's per family, that's not per one person.

SH: No, duffel bag per family. I suppose a big family's got more than one duffel bag. But, my family of my mother and the four of us had just one duffel bag, four suitcases.

SN: So, the fact that you could only take four suitcases and one duffel bag, how did that affect your packing? What type of things did you take?

SH: We didn't take the good stuff. We knew we were... like a suit, I didn't bring a suit, I had a suit, graduated in, but I didn't bring a suit. Brought just underclothing especially, there was no clothing issued until later. Some people were, I think some people were able to have their hakujin friends... that had friends, send stuff.

SN: So you took underclothing, and what other items did you take?

SH: Personal things. Personal, ladies especially, makeup and all that, they were able to bring. The catalog stores did a tremendous business -- Montgomery Wards and Sears. They sent for catalogs and they were able to order stuff.

SN: So that's how the Nikkei, or Japanese Americans purchased goods out of camp? Through catalogs?

SH: Out of camp, yeah. And they had a camp, each block had a...

SN: Let's talk about, I just want to make sure --

SH: ...canteen, is the term they used.

SN: Let's go through this step-by-step just so that we don't jump around too much.

SH: I tend to jump around quite a bit.

SN: That's okay, that's quite all right. It's our job to kinda... redirect things. That's quite all right. If there's one thing, what was the one thing, that you remember, that you had to leave behind that you really wanted to take with you?

SH: Old pictures, and lot of the clothing you just couldn't pack into a duffel bag and a suitcase.

SN: So, describe these pictures.

SH: Pardon?

SN: What were they pictures of?

SH: Old family pictures. Pictures from Japan that my parents brought or they sent. We didn't take much pictures those days, family pictures, like we do now. I remember owning a small camera. But, everybody has special things, and you know when you can't pack but one suitcase -- and it wasn't a big suitcase, just an overnight case. You didn't get to bring a trunk. So, leaving possessions that you couldn't, you couldn't bring all the possessions that you wanted to. So you had to leave 'em behind. In my case, when I went behind, and nothing was left.

SN: So some of the items that you had to leave behind were, had, like a sentimental value attached to them rather than a monetary value?

SH: Sure.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.