<Begin Segment 8>

TI: So right before you had to go to camp, you remember things disappearing, and you thought, perhaps burying things. I now want to talk about your father. Because you mentioned earlier he was the principal of the Moneta Gakuen. And it was pretty common for leaders of the community, principals of Japanese language schools or kendo clubs to be picked up by the FBI after December 7, 1941. What happened to your father?

MS: That's a big mystery. I've asked, I asked him about it, but he never gave much detail other than he found a way to get back up to Stockton area so that he could be with my grandparents and me, so that we would not be separated. So I don't know what he told the authorities that let him come up, or if he came up, you know, illegally or whatever. But he came up after a while and told me that if he had to leave suddenly, that he would be back. So apparently they were watching him, and they knew where he was, but they never did take him away.

TI: Do you recall when he showed up in Lodi with...

MS: Well, it was always a big occasion for me when he came up. And my cousin says, yeah, "He always brought you lots of toys, and we didn't get anything." So I'm sure, I don't really recall that particular occasion, but I know that he always, we went for rides in his car and things like that. That was always special.

TI: Do you recall what kind of car he drove?

MS: He always had an Oldsmobile. Even to the day he died, he had an Oldsmobile. And he said that he, that was one of the things that he had to part with for hardly any money when they went, we went to camp, he had to sell his Oldsmobile, which he had just gotten, like maybe a few years or a year or so before.

TI: But of course he had to drive quite a bit, especially if he was, like, teaching on Terminal Island and going back and forth to Gardena and things like that.

MS: Yeah, he had to have a car.

TI: Earlier, when we were talking about this, you mentioned something that, I wasn't really clear about this. But it sounded like when he came up, he used a different name? His last name was Shingu...

MS: Yes, and he said that on his way up, and at that time, there was no I-5, so it took like twelve hours to get from L.A. to Stockton, he said he went by the name Mr. Shin, because, and pretended to be Chinese, because the anti-Japanese sentiment was pretty strong at that time.

TI: So if he had to talk to authorities or people coming up, it would be just easier for him to be Chinese, essentially...

MS: Uh-huh, right.

TI: ...than Japanese. Interesting. But, so he's now in Lodi with you and his parents. And then what happened next? So he had to sell his Oldsmobile.

MS: Right. I guess he got rid of everything in Gardena, not that he owned a house or anything, but he had a piano, because we got that back after the war. Some pieces of furniture that we got back, like the piano was covered with shoyu, so it was ruined. I guess they did that on purpose, I don't know. But anyway, we got some of that back after the war.

TI: And where was it stored? When you say it was...

MS: Well, apparently he had a Caucasian, somebody he knew who said that would take care of it for him. So we did get some of it back.

TI: And so eventually, the families had to leave Lodi. So where did your family go?

MS: Well, because we were in that area, we went to Stockton Assembly Center, and that was... my aunt lives near the Stockton Fairgrounds where the assembly center was. And so when we go down under the viaduct, under the railroad tracks, I remember walking there with my one suitcase full of... not full, but with some books and some toys. Even when, years and years later, when I would drive under that viaduct, I still remember that, walking from wherever they had assembled us to the trains, or down to the, up to the fairgrounds where we were, we stayed for a few months.

TI: And when you under that viaduct, even to this day, are there certain feelings that you have?

MS: Yeah, I always think, yeah, we walked on that side of the viaduct. And, of course, the street is much wider now, but I still have that peculiar feeling that we're going on a different, new adventure. Not very good one, but...

TI: And so I want to make sure I, maybe I misheard this. But your aunt's place was, is close enough so that you walked from her place?

MS: Well, no. This was after, when she returned after camp, many years later, she lived in the city of Stockton, and it was near this place.

TI: Okay, so it's interesting that she chose to live so close to the...

MS: Oh, yeah. [Laughs]

TI: ...to the former assembly center.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.