<Begin Segment 13>

MN: What was your first impression of Rohwer?

MS: I don't know. I don't remember. It wasn't that bad. Rohwer wasn't that bad. Where our, our block was inside the woods, so it wasn't like the desert in other camps.

MN: What were some of the first things you did to settle down at Rohwer?

MS: What were the first what?

MN: First, first things that you did.

MS: Oh, we had to make our block livable, so I guess my mother, my mother had to work hard to clean up the mess. I don't think we were much help. Too young.

MN: What kind of job did you have at Rohwer?

MS: I worked in the, as an accountant in the engineering department.

MN: What were your responsibilities?

MS: Actually none, but the engineer department was supposed to build a gymnasium in the high school and the town hall and use the scrap lumber left over from building the camp to save the cost of building the gymnasium, so we became custodians of the inventory, the lumber. But they were encouraging the camp inmates to take the scrap lumber and make furniture for the, for the living quarters. But the architect, camp inmate, architects and engineers designed the gymnasium, and they built it. I never saw it finally built because I left camp shortly after that, but they were, apparently they did a good job.

MN: So you had to keep inventory of the scrap lumber.

MS: Yeah. Well, make sure that everything wasn't stolen.

MN: But they were being stolen, weren't they?

MS: Well, they were encouraged to be used, but we, it was our job to see that they didn't take the lumber that was, could be used for the gymnasium.

MN: When did your father return to camp, to the family?

MS: Shortly, several months after we got to Rohwer. Yeah. They released him from Fort Missoula and came back to Rohwer.

MN: What was the reunion like?

MS: Huh?

MN: What was the reunion like?

MS: The what?

MN: Reunion with your father.

MS: I don't know. We were surprised that he came back, but my father could read and write English, so we figured that, of all the Japanese, he was more Americanized than most of the Isseis were, so we didn't think he would be kept, but he managed to talk them out of releasing him.

MN: Now, when your father came to Rohwer, what did he do?

MS: Huh?

MN: What did he do at Rohwer?

MS: Well, the assistant commander, Dr. Hunter, and him became friends. Dr. Hunter subscribed to the Chicago Tribune and sponsored my father to read the paper and let the Isseis know what the progress, day to day happening of the war and so forth, so he was able to read the Chicago Tribune and let the, let the Japanese Isseis know the progress of the war. Because most of the Isseis didn't read English, so he translated and interpreted, with the, with the sanction of the authorities. So he got to be like [inaudible] of the camp. My father was pretty good English, but I think he knew more about the war than we did since he read the paper every day. We didn't even, wouldn't bother to read the paper, although he had, he had 'em.

MN: So he read the Chicago Tribune in English and translated it to the Issei?

MS: Yeah. Yeah, he was that good.

MN: Did he ever have any problems with the Issei, maybe accusing him of lying?

MS: No. They wouldn't know, anyway. But the Chicago Tribune was a more liberal paper anyway, not like the New York Times. [Laughs]

MN: Was the "loyalty questionnaire" an issue in your family?

MS: No.

MN: Did your parents ever talk about wanting to return to Japan?

MS: No.

MN: What did your mother do in camp?

MS: I don't know, took care of the family, but she must've helped in the kitchen whenever they needed it. But I'm not too sure.

MN: Were there dances at Rohwer?

MS: Yeah.

MN: Did you go to a lot of them?

MS: Yeah.

MN: What kind of memories do you have of the dances?

MS: What kind of what?

MN: Memories.

MS: Oh, something to do Saturday night, but anyway, learn, learned to jitterbug and half time and stuff like that. Didn't cost anything, cheap date. [Laughs] It was, we managed to have a good time.

MN: Were you able to go outside of camp?

MS: Yeah, we had picnics in, outside of the barbed wire fence. But one time we were walking and we saw a black sharecropper, I guess, complete with a... outside and so forth. We looked over and wondered what the, what they did to deserve that, but we never went to town or anything. I don't remember myself going, but my sisters could've gone shopping. We didn't have any money to shop with anyways. [Laughs]

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.