<Begin Segment 21>

TI: And during this time, did you make any friends? Did you have any playmates?

RE: Yeah, I had, I had a good friend, Saburo Kami, who eventually became a prominent dentist in the Bay Area. But Sab and I chummed around together. I didn't... when they stuck me in the third grade with Sab, I couldn't read or write, so it was embarrassing. And every chance I had, if the window was open on the back of the room, I'd jump out and I wouldn't come back. I'd hide in the block latrine or wherever. But they finally caught up with me and they realized that I couldn't, I didn't belong in the third grade so they stuck me in the second grade. Now, why would they do that? 'Cause I still couldn't read or write. So by the time all was said and done, I was in the second grade, I sat through that and never learned anything. We left, we left 1943, December of '43 we left, I think, December 11th, we left for Cleveland.

TI: But before we go there, how did you become friends with Sab?

RE: It just, I don't know, by strange acquaintance I got to know Sab. Sab just was a quiet, nice guy, we just matched up. [Laughs] So we used to things together.

TI: What were some of the things that the two of you would do that you can recall?

RE: Oh, I don't know. We'd go out and play stickball with some of the other kids. We would roam around from one end of the camp to the other, may not come back for hours. Just not getting in mischief, but just seeing what other things were going on. We would go out after, we would go capture scorpions, see if we can get the biggest scorpions and look for flint, different things.

TI: And how would the, your other, sort of, classmates treat you? I mean, so Sab and you were friends, did the other ones still give you a hard time?

RE: Oh, yeah, but you know, even at that time, I still had sufficient Southwestern accent that we were, I was always harassed, so I couldn't get along with the other kids too much. Sab accepted that, but others would not. They wouldn't let it go. You know, there were times they would corner me and say, "Say something, say something," and then laugh like heck. Kids are cruel in that growing stage.

TI: And so how did you feel about being around so many Japanese, Japanese Americans?

RE: Oh, that was, it was awful. I mean, there were times that even my other sisters didn't care to go to the mess hall. I mean, we were more frightened of them, you know, it was just a, as a scenery we never had experienced.

TI: And your parents, how did they, you were there for almost a year.

RE: Well, my dad, my dad was given the job as assistant cook. He, he couldn't cook a lick anyhow, but the whole thing is he worked in the mess hall.

TI: And your mother? Do you recall what she was doing?

RE: Yeah, I think she just did the housewife things. She wasn't too busy.

<End Segment 21> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.