<Begin Segment 12>

MN: Do you remember what year your two brothers left camp?

TS: Soon, soon as they could.

MN: Maybe 1943, does that sound about --

TS: '43, around there. (Yes).

MN: So you were left in camp with your parents. What did your parents do in camp? What did your father do?

TS: He was the rice cooker. He made rice for our block, a hundred pounds of rice every day. And he was also the janitor of the mess hall, so I used to go up there and swab that floor for him and he, he was making rice and I was swabbing the floors.

MN: What about your mother?

TS: I don't recall what she did. She was too busy trying to Christianize that whole camp. She said she's gonna convert 'em all to Christianity. I said, "You're crazy," so I didn't get along too well with my mother because she was out to evangelize everybody in camp. She said (...) the husbands all complained, but the wives were somewhat acceptable of Christianity.

MN: Did your mom hold bible studies at your barrack?

TS: I think she did, but I never stuck around.

MN: Now, your family, did you attend church in camp?

TS: (Yes).

MN: Which one?

TS: Church of Christ was a strange outfit. They didn't believe that other denominations of the Christian Church were Christian. They thought they were the only Christians, so they had a separate church at the bottom end of camp, the Church of Christ, and we went to a separate church.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.