<Begin Segment 12>

TI: So let's, so you leave the immigration center, go back to the family. And soon, you get the orders that you're going to have to leave Seattle. So what happened to, like, the business and...

JS: Well, at that point, my father had lost the business, and he was just getting reestablished by leasing another place, a much smaller place, but nothing became of that. He had to, of course, couldn't keep up the payments or whatever, and so he had to forego that opportunity. And for us, we were more concerned about keeping the family together. And there was really, not really a threat to that because we were all, we were all similar, a whole bunch of us, you know. And we were sent to "Camp Harmony" in Puyallup.

TI: Now for you, going back home, now as, essentially, the head male of the family, I mean, what were you thinking? Was that kind of a burden that you felt, or a responsibility?

JS: Well, yes, I did. I didn't know how I would handle it, of course, but I thought, well, I'm thrust with that responsibility, I will have to see what happens.

TI: How about your mother? Was your relationship with your mother changed by, by the situation?

JS: No. My mother has always been about the same, she's, she was sorry or sad, of course, but... but she was not alone. There were other families that had, had the same thing happen to them, so...

TI: So, what did you do with your belongings in the time that...

JS: Well, we were limited, of course, to, on what we could take to, to camp. But I don't remember the details, but we did the best we could and boarded the buses and off we went.

TI: So the stuff you couldn't carry, what happened to that?

JS: Oh, I'm sure that we sold it or just left it.

TI: Now, both your parents were, were pretty religious. What church did you belong to?

JS: Well, it was a Presbyterian church. All through childhood, I did go to the Presbyterian church, not necessarily the Japanese group, but it was a church near where we lived, near the library, the frame of reference there.

TI: And how many Japanese were members of this church?

JS: None that I recall.

TI: So other than the services you attended, were there other activities that the family...

JS: Not insofar as the church is concerned, although we did go to some manual training opportunities with the, with a different church, it was a Plymouth Congregational Church, and it just happened to be very close also, and they offered, once a week, you could go, use their shop. They had workbenches and they had saws and things that you could use. So I enjoyed manual training there.

TI: Okay.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2007 Densho. All Rights Reserved.