<Begin Segment 9>

AI: Well, and also I was wondering, you were mentioning that you had a good friend in school, a good friend, Nancy, and whether you had... what the social life was like for you as a young child, if you mixed a lot with other, with the Caucasian kids, or if you had some sense that you were different because you were Japanese American?

BS: Well, I really didn't, I really didn't feel that way. But we didn't, we didn't socialize, like Nancy and I, we didn't socialize other than at school because we had our, my family. And then our neighbor down the street, I think they were transient workers, but there was a girl around my age that we hung out with and I didn't feel any different until after the war broke out and then you realize you were different.

AI: But at that early age, the early years in school, you didn't really feel that?

BS: No, no.

AI: Well, you have a couple of photos I wanted you to show.

BS: Okay, this picture is, well, it had to have been probably not too long before the war broke out. This is my grandfather, and this is my brother Claude and Junior. And this is our nearest friend Tim Nishimoto and then Flora and me. And this was, this was our house, and there's the road alongside the house. And we, the five of us hung out together and we, during the summer we went crawdad fishing and had weenie roasts and did things. And my brother Claude, who was five years older than me, he was more or less responsible for me. Because my sister Flora, she had three brothers above her, so she was a tomboy, but I was more, he was protective of me and he was responsible for me. My parents would expect him to watch out for me.

AI: And what was the name of your town or the town that you were closest to?

BS: Okay, well actually, I was born in Odell, Odell, Oregon, which is in Hood River valley, in Hood River County. But I would say -- because people don't know where Odell is -- I'd say, "Oh, I'm from Hood River." People know where that is.

AI: Here's another photo.

BS: And this is a picture of Nancy Odell, my best friend in, in Oregon. I think she sent this picture to me while I was in camp. I think the first picture of her that she sent to me in camp.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2003 Densho. All Rights Reserved.