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AI: And so then, as you were saying, a lot of your friends and other families were leaving and you were still there until October.

BS: Yes, and then, in fact, towards the end, I don't know why there were Caucasian families. You would see them in camp, in the, you know, boundary of the camp. And we would sometimes see them in the mess hall. You know, well, because there were less people, less Japanese Americans there, and we see them in the mess hall. And they would look down on us and we were resentful of them intruding, and then they, but they lived within the boundaries but they were farming in, in the camp. And right, right next to -- 'cause we were, we were right next, I guess were towards one of the boundary lines and so there was, they were farming around there and they had... we'd seen them raising corn. We'd see corn out there. And so, a few of our kids my age, and then there were some, there were two older sisters, they were from the Portland area and they were in their, probably late teens or so. And we, we all resented them being in camp with us and then treating us, look down on us. And so, we got together and we said, "Oh, one night we're gonna raid that corn field." And then we said, "Oh," you know, like me, I'm a chicken. [Laughs] And then they said, "Okay," so we says, "Okay, we get, we get our flashlights and we get bags and we're gonna go." So then when it's dark we went out there and then we got the corn, whatever we could in our bags. And I was so scared. I didn't use my flashlight, I just took anything. I was so afraid, I just took anything. So then when we got back we went back to their barrack, to the older, to the older girl's place and then she just laid out everything that we got and then she just divided it among us. And I'm sure all mine were green. But I said, "Oh man, we stole some corn." [Laughs]

AI: That's quite a story. My goodness. Well, so, then the time did come for you to pack up and leave. And so what did, what was going through you mind as you were doing this, getting ready to go?

BS: Well, I was, I was glad we were leaving because most of my friends had left camp already. And then I would think oh, I'll be reunited with my sisters. So I was looking forward to it. And so we went from camp to, I think it was Shoshone, Shoshone or Shoshone Falls and then my father met us there. So, so it was just my grandfather, my mother, sister and I. And we had, I think it was lunch or breakfast with my father and then we boarded the train to go to Chicago. And then because my grandfather and my sister were (dependents), so we got a compartment. So it was small but it was nice because we had our own room and that.

<End Segment 27> - Copyright © 2003 Densho. All Rights Reserved.