<Begin Segment 10>

MA: So they took you out, all the Niseis, out of Fort Riley and sent, sent you all to Camp Shelby?

GF: Well, we had, we volunteered to get out. I think everybody's ready to get out of there. Yeah. So we went.

MA: So how, how was it then being at Camp Shelby with all, all Niseis? How was that experience?

GF: Well, it wasn't any different. All of our officers were white and I think though the worst is probably, discrimination, is when we went to town. When we went to town of Hattiesburg in Mississippi, the policemen were always right after us, Japanese. He says, "You don't date white girls." But that stopped because our captain, I think he sent a note into the city that that's not gonna happen again. So it kinda stopped. So, our white officers was good to us. In fact, I think they all volunteered knowing the Nihonjin people.

MA: So they volunteered for this...

GF: For this, yeah. That's why I think they were all, all good.

MA: So how... you were saying that there were Niseis from Hawaii and Niseis from the camps, how did you feel about those two groups? Were there... I've heard from other people, there's...

GF: I never had problem with people. So I got along with all of them. But there was lots of, I don't know what you call... they kinda hated each other, Hawaiian people and the American, from the United States. And I never felt that because I got along with all of 'em and they all call me different kinds of names and it's all right for me.

MA: You were kind of... 'cause the people from camps were from the West Coast and then there was people from Hawaii. And you were from, from Colorado. So...

GF: From Colorado. We didn't have any problem. And, to me, they were just people. They had name for us, kotonk, and all that kind of stuff. But it didn't bother me.

MA: Did the people that came from camp ever talk about camp... in, in Shelby?

GF: No. There's not any that I know or I met that come to Camp Shelby from the relocation centers. I mean, I didn't meet 'em. It might have been after our time. 'Cause I got hurt in 1943 and from first to '43, all of that year, I stayed all my life there in the hospital. And therefore I didn't get to meet any of the new people that come in.

MA: So it was mostly people from Hawaii, then --

GF: Yes.

MA: -- that you were with.

GF: Uh-huh. Except the, the group that was sent from Kansas and they were sent as non-commissioned officers. They were sergeants and mess sergeants and that, that's the type of people that were from the States. Maybe that's why the Hawaii people didn't like 'em. I don't know. Maybe they tried to show their authority. But I didn't feel that way. I just got along with everybody.

MA: So what, what did you do in Camp Shelby? I mean, you'd already done the basic training. Did you have to repeat all the stuff that you had learned? Or did you take on a different role?

GF: No, we didn't have to. I mean, some of 'em that was a, an officer, a non-commissioned officer, they had to take and train them. But I went to the motor pool, motor department, and in the supply until they sent us to the guarding prisoners in Alabama.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.