<Begin Segment 7>

MN: Well, let's go back to Tanforan. I want to ask you some mundane questions, like do you remember the food at Tanforan?

TS: You know, I can't. I can't remember a thing we ate in camp. That's something I must've suppressed or repressed. I cannot remember a thing we ate, except in Topaz I remember. But, but I remember there was a time, too, though -- and I don't know what we ate, I think we ate spinach -- and everybody had a sore tongue. Everybody's tongue was so sore from eating that spinach. What was in the spinach I don't know, but I remember everybody walking around with a sore tongue. But other than that I have no idea what the menu was in the, in the mess halls of Tanforan. We were only there for, since, well I was there from June to September and then we went to Topaz.

MN: And your earache was cured?

TS: No. No, I had chronic earaches until, jeez... that's a good question. I still have earaches if I'm in, exposed to extreme cold, but other than that it's not bothered me. Back in those days they used to do these, they used to call 'em ear mastoids. They would have to chisel through the bone behind your ear, 'cause I have a Japanese friend who had that. He has this horrible scar because they didn't have antibiotics in those days. To get to the inner ear infection they had to cut -- well, luckily for me, they didn't, they decided, maybe they thought, "Who's gonna waste money on this Jap kid?" But to my, to my advantage they never did it. I'm happy for it.

MN: So did you end up in a hospital a lot at Tanforan or Topaz because of your ear?

TS: No. I was never hospitalized after San Francisco General.

MN: Now, when you rode the train to get to Topaz, was this your first train ride?

TS: Absolutely.

MN: How did you feel about getting on the train? Was it exciting or was it scary?

TS: It was scary, and I remember so clearly my mother made a bunch of nigiri and put it in this cardboard box, you know, like you get at a Macy's or something, and there were all these nigiris in there with wax paper and we ate those. And, and I remember being in the train and the shades were drawn. Had never ridden the train before, and there was a guard at one end, each end of the train with a rifle. We were scared shitless. I mean, what the hell's going on? But I guess it was an adventure, but I sure didn't see it as, when I just, and the thing that really gets me is I remember my mother's face. As a kid you always look up at your mother, right? Looked at my mother's face and she had this worried look on her face that said, "Don't ask me any questions 'cause I don't know what the hell's going on either." So I suffered because I didn't know, my mother didn't know. They never told us where we're going, made us pull the shades down in the train so we couldn't look out. And after three or four days they tell us to get off the train and we get on the buses, school, old school bus, and they take us out to Topaz.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.