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Title: Kay Uno Kaneko Interview
Narrator: Kay Uno Kaneko
Interviewer: Tom Ikeda
Location: Kona, Hawaii
Date: June 9, 2010
Densho ID: denshovh-kkay-01-0016

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TI: Well, any other memories about Amache before we go to Crystal City?

KK: Yes. [Laughs] That's where I first had snow. You know, we lived in this place with lots of snow, and I was going to school and I missed the street and I, the thing that goes over the, there was this big break, firebreak, and of course it was full of snow and so was the path, and I missed the path and I went into that and there was snow up to there. "I have to get to school, I'm gonna be late." [Laughs]

TI: So you just fell into, like, a snowdrift, and it was up to your eyes and you just had to kind of wade through that?

KK: I had to climb out of it.

TI: But it must've been fun, too, to see snow.

KK: Oh, yeah, it was, it was. It was fun. Actually, we were lucky and we had, I had a good time in camp. My age group, when we meet, now, after the war, people said in camp is where they made good friends that they still have. In camp they had all these fun things that we did. One of the things that we did on our block, there was a lady, there was a young lady, and she had a sister that had palsy, I didn't know what that was at the time, but she was in a wheelchair and she had to watch her all the time because she, you know. But she was a real very Christian lady, and she got the Christians in my block, which there were maybe four or five of us, and we'd have Sunday school, right there in our units. And so, I still have a program that I had put together for one of the Sundays, and I found that and I thought wow, now I remember we would have these Sunday programs and we would make programs and everything and meet together in one of the homes and have our Sunday school. And that really helped me a lot through the years, to know that, you know, my Christian life just kept growing, and then being with my mother so much, it just kept growing.

TI: So it sounds like you had more time for some of these things. Oh, and your mother, too, probably, more than you, your mother had more time.

KK: And then the other thing I liked was that we learned to do the baton. I learned to turn the baton and twirl the baton and all, and so for one of the programs I did, this other girl and I, we did baton twirling and tap dance for one of the entertainment, talent shows that we had. We had to make our costumes and everything. It was fun.

TI: Good.

KK: So we had a good time. And then, also, we were, I was in a choir in Amache, and I never thought I could sing much, but I loved to sing, and I was surprised when they gave me a solo at Christmas. So that was the first time I ever thought I could sing.

TI: That's good.

KK: And then Amache was where a very nice teacher, very nice teacher, she sent all the boys out and she talked to the girls, and she talked to us about menstruation. And she said when she was young nobody told her about that and she was so embarrassed when it happened in school that she said she would never let that happen to her girls. And so she did this, and I always thanked her, in my mind I always thanked her.

TI: But you had the advantage of having older sisters. Do you think you would have, someone would have told you, your sisters or your mother?

KK: They might have, but then to have gotten it from this lady, you know, you knew what to -- and then, because I was a very late, I didn't start until I was sixteen, most people start when they're, you know, anywhere from thirteen on, and twelve, I guess. And so I kept waiting and waiting and it never happened. [Laughs] Finally when I'm sixteen, "Oh, late, I'm odd."

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.