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TI: I want to ask you more about that, but before we talk about that, what was your mother doing in camp?

FS: She used to be a, what do you call that? What the... maintenance. You know, cleaning up bathrooms or something like that.

TI: So for the, your block or something, she would, she would do that? Okay.

FS: Yeah, there was about, at least four ladies, anyway. Four, four, maybe more than that, doing the same job.

TI: And for her leisure time, what would she do, when she had time to...

FS: Who?

TI: Your mother, what would she...

FS: She used to, they used to, some people used to go out and pick some, pick seashells, and so she used to put the seashells together and make some kind of decoration in the, staying inside the bedroom and making something like that.

TI: And so, because of the, the land, at one point that used to be a seabed, so they had all these little old shells.

FS: Right. Yeah, a lot of shells, even in around where you lived, there were a lot of shells around there, too, sometimes.

TI: So they would go out and collect these and bring 'em back and then create things?

FS: Yeah.

TI: What, what were, what would be some of the things that she would create with the sea shells? You mentioned like, what, a necklace, or what kind of things would she make?

FS: Making a, like a flower. Instead of, instead of just leave one, she would put another one and make a flower out of it.

TI: And what would they do with these after they made these?

FS: Hang it up, decorate it.

TI: Did any of these survive after the war? Did they, did people bring these home and...

FS: I think I got some, one or two left over, decorating.

TI: Well, you should, you should keep that. That's kind of a nice artifact of the camps. I mean, I've heard about this from other people.

FS: I've even got, somebody made me, not a desk, but a cupboard to put the thing in. I got two of 'em. One, one's, two of the doors are, slide. There's no nail on it or nothing. They just, you slide it and, or just pick it up, fit it in the whatchamacall and drop it. It'll fit and then slide it back.

TI: So really good craftsman, in terms of how those were made.

FS: Yeah.

TI: Good.

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