<Begin Segment 12>

SY: So how did you pack up for all your sisters and brothers? Did you each carry something?

NS: Yes. Well, we all had to buy suitcase. We all had to buy, had nine of us, but, see, Mother used to go to Japan, and she had quite a few suitcases already. So it wasn't too bad. But I think, I remember... my suitcase was brand new yet, and my brothers [inaudible], 'cause they didn't have it either. We bought a cheap suitcase and packed it. Lot of people, we didn't realize, but then they had it in a bag. I said, oh my god, they said they had to put a suitcase, they told us. So my father said, "No, you got to buy a suitcase." We went to where we had to go, all these people had all these in a sack, I mean, you know, one of those things, packed in there. My father said, "We didn't have to have suitcase." After we got into camp, we didn't know what to do with the suitcase, it got in the way. But then, don't forget, we had a, underneath the barrack, there was open. So that's why we packed it in there.

SY: So you had, must have had eleven suitcases.

NS: Yeah, oh, yeah. So we didn't know how to take it, so we had to put it in a suitcase. But my brothers, they all had small, they didn't have that many clothes, so it wasn't that bad.

SY: Do you remember choosing what you were going to take?

NS: Oh, we had to take everything what we had.

SY: What did you bring? Do you remember packing...

NS: Yeah, the pants and dresses and everything, what I had.

SY: That's all...

NS: That's all. Oh, no, you couldn't take other things. That's why I was so sad, we couldn't take our annual. When we came back, everything was gone, I told you. Oh, it was so sad. None of those annuals and things, that was a real... and books and things that we had from school, high school. I mean, I graduated from high school and my honor thing, all those things were gone.

SY: So you had to really make a choice, and there were certain things that you...

NS: Well, I wish I, if I had known that we're gonna be gone like that, we could have packed. But we had only limited thing, don't forget. We could only take one suitcase apiece. But I could have put it in my brother's, 'cause they didn't have that much clothes. I'm the only one that had more clothes.

SY: And so your brothers, and so during that time between Pearl Harbor and you were told to go to camp, did you stay at home all the time?

NS: Oh, yes. We couldn't go out. You were not allowed to leave home, see. That's why it was very sad.

SY: So you went to school -- oh, but you weren't going to school.

NS: No, no school, nothing. We're not allowed to leave home, but we were ready to go to camp.

SY: And that was after...

NS: Pearl Harbor.

SY: But for a while you went to school and then you stopped?

NS: No. After the notice came to us, we couldn't go. Besides, it was summertime, so there was summer school, anyway.

SY: So there was a period...

NS: Yeah, so that's when we got ready.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.