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BF: Now, you were saying one of your brothers had some memories of having, their being more friendships sort of across the ethnic groups.

AS: Yes, okay. Yeah, so he went, when he came along, there was, the junior high school system had been started, and so, so he just did, I suppose, 1 through 6 at Horace Mann, and then, I suppose, seventh/eighth at Washington Middle School, which is not far from here, up the hill. And, and he said -- he had a lot of Japanese American friends there, and then when, in 1941, when... I'm not sure when the Japanese were suddenly pulled out. Was it, it probably was a few months after the war started, maybe?

BF: Yeah, yeah. There was a delay.

AS: So it would have been 1942, and he remembers when they had to leave. And he did have one close friend, and they corresponded with each other during the time he was gone, and then when he came back, he stayed in our home. Well, I must have been married then, because I have no recollection of it. Yeah, yeah, there are a few years' difference, and I married young. So, but then they lost track, he lost track of the friend. But my brother also said that he remembers that my father, when the evacuation order came, took my brother Sydney with him to a, I guess it was a men's clothing store, in the International District, and this is a Japanese American owner, and he was trying to sell everything that he could. And so Syd said that our dad looked to see if there was anything that he could use in the business, but Syd didn't think he bought anything, that there was anything he could use. So, so he had some really pretty direct experiences, which I wasn't aware of. And he was also indignant because he said it was crazy. The people from Germany were here, and some of them were actually pro-Nazis, and they weren't rounded up, they were allowed to, you know. So he has very strong feelings.

BF: You probably had much more going on because you were graduating from high school at that point.

AS: Right, yeah.

BF: Now, you had said --

AS: Oh, that's right. I graduated in '41, that's right. So...

BF: Yeah, right before.

AS: So I was, yeah, and then '42, I was married. June of '42, I was married. So...

BF: Lot on your plate.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.