<Begin Segment 18>

SY: And so when your mother was reunited with your father, do you remember her...

NS: Oh, yeah. Well, it was, I guess... well, Papa and Mama was happy, but being treated okay, she wasn't so sad. Before she just couldn't even eat because she thought that they were treating my father mean. They heard about it, see, that's why. But I said, "No, no, sonna koto nai, Mama." So she was okay.

SY: So when you got to camp, it was your mother and all your brothers and sisters?

NS: Except my oldest one, he was in, he was in Chicago during the wartime. My oldest brother was in Chicago. And then he got a government job after that, so he went to Washington, D.C. He was a scientist, see, so they wanted something like that, kind of job, so he got the job.

SY: So he had left.

NS: He just left. So we didn't see him at all during the wartime. He was in Washington.

SY: I mean, being Japanese, that didn't prevent him from getting a job?

NS: I guess not. They took him. I don't know how he got it, got a good job.

SY: Was it with the government?

NS: Yeah, yeah. Maybe they wanted to get something out of him, I don't know. That I don't know. But he spoke Japanese and English. But I don't think my brother didn't know anything about government thing anyway.

SY: And you don't remember the name of the place he worked in Washington?

NS: No, because they wouldn't let you know. He couldn't... he wouldn't even write to us.

SY: You didn't correspond with him at all during the war?

NS: Yeah, after everything was released, then we got it, but not during the time that he was in there.

SY: So you didn't know what happened to him?

NS: Yeah, Mama was worried about him. Then after he got the note, I mean, letter saying that he's fine, then Mama got it, she was happy. All that time he was in Washington, but he had a good job. I guess he was about the only Japanese working at that time.

SY: So he... it was then your oldest sister and your older brother and you that were in camp with your mom, and then the younger kids were there, too.

NS: Oh, yeah. See, and then after third year, my brother, three of my brothers, Harry, Jimmy and Bob had to go in the army. They took him in the army from camp, mind you. Isn't that something? Japanese being in the camp. And Papa was so mad: "Nani ka." Said, no, otherwise they'll go in jail if they don't

SY: So they didn't volunteer, they were drafted.

NS: They were drafted.

SY: All three of them. At the same time?

NS: Yeah, in camp, from camp.

SY: And they... so they were all at the same time taken in as soon as they opened the draft, then?

NS: Yeah, my three brothers went.

SY: And what happened to them?

NS: They went in the army and they went overseas. But they didn't go with 442, though. They were not in 442 because they were separated.

SY: So where did they end up?

NS: In Minneapolis.

SY: Oh, so they went to the MIS, Military Intelligence?

NS: Yeah.

SY: So they were in there trained to be interpreting service.

NS: That was later on, though, much later, though. Practically time he was gonna come out already. And during the other time, they were in different camps.

SY: So they went, like, through basic training.

NS: Yes, yes, that's what I mean.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.