Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Arthur Ogami Interview
Narrator: Arthur Ogami
Interviewer: Alice Ito
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: March 10, 2004
Densho ID: denshovh-oarthur-01-0031

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AI: Well, you know, while the ship was underway and you were actually on the seas on your way to Japan, what was going through your mind? Were you relieved that finally you were actually going to Japan? Or worried? Or both?

AO: Well, I was wondering what it was going to be like. And I was busy assisting the doctor and I was busy going to the mess hall and that, what they called the galley to eat. So there was a lotta activity on board the ship. And they would have a man overboard drill and I'm sure they had a drill... what do you call it? I don't know what they termed that. We had to do that on our cruise ship that we went on to Alaska and, and the Panama Canal cruise -- lifeboat drill, that's it, lifeboat drill. And so we had to put on life jackets and go through the drill. And when the ship is dead stop in sea, it would roll, the swells are so huge that you would almost think that you would slide off the ship. But those are some of the activity that we had to do.

AI: So, I was going to ask you, had you or your parents had any communication with any relatives in Japan? Did anybody know that you were going to be arriving?

AO: I really don't know. Because we were approximately four years in the camp and there was no communication by mail during the war because there was no mail served between United States and Japan.

AI: Why, I understand that some people were able to communicate through the Red Cross but that it was very difficult.

AO: That's very possible that... but time-consuming, too.

<End Segment 31> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.