<Begin Segment 11>

SY: The camps were, in some ways, maybe in some way, easier for your parents, because they didn't have to scramble so much to make a living.

TF: Uh-huh. In camp, my father was cleared, I remember for a while he was a policeman, and then he was cleared to work on a sugar beet farm. The sad thing also about camp is there's... family life, to me, fell apart. There is, I was always, maybe because of the camp life, I've always been very independent. I mean, I was nine, but we no longer had to sit and eat together. I mean, I'm running around all day doing what I want to do, and the only time I probably was home was when I went to sleep. Because otherwise we'd go to the mess hall, eat with your friends, do what you want with your friends. And then my father went to work on a sugar beet farm. I never saw my parents. They'd separate for months or whatever, and all they did was just bow to one another. They never touched, they never showed affection. I was shocked when I found out how babies are born, or kissing. I never saw kissing. I don't think I ever saw kissing and then I was kissed one day. And I had, my sister came back from, she had a child, she was gonna have a child, so she came back to camp from Sikeston, Missouri. And so I helped bring up my niece at that time, and changed her diapers and do everything. And then it must have been when I was in camp maybe, that I was still young, I was twelve when I left camp. Could it have happened then or was it later? It may have... I don't remember. But somewhere along the way, I got my first kiss. Well, I didn't know what it was, but it sure felt good. [Laughs] So I kissed my niece, because I thought, oh, she said, "What are you doing?" Well, what I didn't know, it was a French kiss. I had no idea. I thought that was a kiss. Well, I didn't let a boy get near me for years after that, 'cause she made me feel like it was so bad and so awful and so dirty. "Don't let anyone give you a kiss, it's yuck." But then I remember someone holding my hand, and it was so thrilling, and I thought, "Kids today don't know the thrill of just having someone hold your hand." It was so beautiful.

SY: That's interesting how you learned how, that first kiss.

TF: That first kiss, and then to find out it was... 'cause I'd never been kissed. I'd never had a kiss on the cheek or a hug or something.

SY: That's amazing.

TF: So it must have been someone older who led me astray. [Laughs]

SY: Yeah. I always marvel at how people became pregnant in camp, because, you know, it was not, you didn't have any...

TF: No, there's no privacy. My mother and father and then four girls were all together. I knew nothing about sex. I mean, it just seemed natural. You sleep. I mean, that's what you do, right? My sister got married and she went to live in another barrack, I'd go over and I'd sleep with them. Whoever knew what they did in bed? So naive. Children in those days maybe were a little more -- and here I am a farmer's daughter. I should have known better. I see what animals do, but somehow I didn't make a connection of what animals do and what humans do. So it's a little dumb. But no one talked about the birds and the bees. Parents didn't... I don't know if your parents ever talked to you about that.

SY: That was probably very cultural. Yeah, not to talk about it, especially back in those days.

TF: Well, yes.

SY: And you were younger. Yeah, 'cause I am curious about that.

TF: No, when I was leaving camp, I went from Jerome to Rohwer, and then I left camp when they decided there wasn't going to be any more school. My mother stayed in camp. My mother was one of the longest people who stayed in the camp. But I took the train by myself to Chicago from Arkansas, and at first I sat on my suitcase, there was no room, and then in the middle of the night there was a chair available and I went to go sit there. It wasn't 'til years later I realized that the man I was sitting next to was trying to molest me. I just thought... and I never put it together because I knew nothing about sex. And I was trying to sleep and then these hands would be on, and I thought, well, you know, when people sleep they do strange things, they move. And then afterwards I thought, "Ah, that's what it was." I just didn't put it together.

SY: Amazing. Innocence might be good in that case.

TF: Yes. If I had been older I probably would have been aware of it. But I was still into paper dolls and all that. But another thing, you're so poor after, and you don't have anything. We went in with one suitcase or whatever, and so when I went out, I'm sure I had very little. And when I went to grammar school, I finished eighth grade outside camp. I went to live in Chicago with the sister who was just above me. I think she graduated very early, sixteen or something, she went to work for a company, and to the day that she retired, she was with the same company. Years and years after, I said to her, "But you're getting any pension." She said, "You shouldn't always be thinking about money. There's loyalty. You've got to think of loyalty, and they hired me." It's that old Japanese way of thinking. But anyway, we had one bedroom that we shared, and just a little hotpot or something, and a bathroom down the hall. The Elevated train was going by the apartment. I went to Oakenwald grammar school in Chicago. And I probably had a handful of clothes. It was a pink sweater, but I must have worn it all the time, 'cause I remember some child yelling out to me, "Is that the only sweater you wear? We're sick of seeing that pink sweater." And then it's all I had, really. And then years later I thought, "Is that why I have so many sweaters?" I have too many things. I don't need all these things. But is it because of some insecurity from those grammar school days? I have to have more than one sweater. Why do I need all these shoes? Now I'm trying to simplify and it's hard. But little things affect you, and you don't know how it's gonna affect you. But I always remember her yelling at me, "Is that the only sweater? Sick of seeing that sweater."

SY: The things that you remember are interesting.

TF: Yeah.

SY: Yeah, but that stands out in your mind.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.