<Begin Segment 10>

TI: So let's move on. So after Stockton, what happened?

MS: Well, we had that three-day trip through the desert, all the way to Rohwer, Arkansas. And there we were, in a different, entirely different kind of climate, from the desert to swamps, lots of bugs, mosquitoes. Rohwer was situated in... there was a more foresty part, and then there was the barren part, and we were more in the barren part. But my cousins were in the next block, and my dad and I had a small room, and my grandparents had a small room just adjacent to it. So we had two separate quarters.

TI: Good. Let me ask a little bit more about your father. I think about his education, he was well-educated, he had a master's degree from USC, he was fluent Japanese, in fact, a Japanese language instructor and principal. Were those skills utilized?

MS: Yes. He also had some leadership ability, so he became the assistant to the camp director, and he always was spokesperson, made all the announcements at meetings. I think he arranged for things like that. There were people who were discontented, they always came to him.

TI: And when you say announcements, I mean, announcements in Japanese or also in English?

MS: Mostly in Japanese, because the only people that didn't really understand Japanese were kids like us.

TI: And so like when it was a camp announcement, was there like a camp administrator also present when he would address the...

MS: Well, this was just for our block. There may have been camp-wide meetings that he presided over, but I didn't go, so I don't know.

TI: Okay, so he made, like, a lot of the block announcements, but he was also the assistant to the camp director for the whole camp?

MS: Right, uh-huh.

TI: So I'm guessing that made him pretty busy.

MS: Yeah, he was busy all day. Of course, during the school year, I was busy going to school, so it was okay, but my grandparents were always there, my aunt was always around.

TI: Right. So as an assistant to the camp director, was he, did he ever come under criticism by the community members, thinking perhaps he's a little bit too close to the administration? Do you recall anything like that?

MS: I don't recall any problems that he might have had. He didn't share them with me, but I know that he was well-known and liked, and people knew who I was because of who he was in camp.

TI: And so generally, on a personal basis, your treatment was nice. I mean, people knew that you were the daughter of the assistant to the camp director, and people treated you well.

MS: Yeah.

TI: So that's a good indicator that people respected and liked you. It's just that in other camps, there's always been -- and each camp is different -- but sometimes people who helped the administration were sort of targeted as sort of... "traitor" may not be the right word.

MS: Yeah, right.

TI: But someone who is sort of selling out, and I was just curious if your father had to deal with any of that.

MS: Well, he may have, but I don't... he never passed it on to me.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.