<Begin Segment 20>

SY: And then what else, did you do other things while you were in camp?

NS: In camp? Yes. I took care of a baby. I don't know if you know or not, but I took care of this principal's baby. He was the principal and the mother had to go, the mother went to teach. So she was pregnant at that time and then she had the baby, and then she was looking for a Japanese girl to do babysitting. So somebody told them about me, so she asked me. And I said, "Oh, sure, I'll watch the baby." I had a lot of brother and sister that I took care of, babies, so I said, "I have experience," I told her. She wanted to know if I was experienced watching babies and I said, "Oh, yes." I took care of my baby sister. [Laughs]

SY: And who was the principal, what was his name?

NS: Mr. Richard... Richard was his first name.

SY: That was the baby's name, right, Richard?

NS: Yeah, uh-huh.

SY: And the principal was the --

NS: Well, his father's name was Richard, too. What was his last name? I can't think.

SY: I think it was Strickland.

NS: Yeah, Strickland, that's right. How do you know?

SY: You told me.

NS: Oh, that's right. See, I have the paper, that's why, that time.

SY: And what school was he the principal of?

NS: This was in camp.

SY: Right. Which school? Was it the grammar school or the high school?

NS: Oh, it was junior high school.

SY: Junior high school, so he was the principal.

NS: Yeah, he was principal. Well, he was principal for the whole school, camp, dakara. You only have one principal, you know.

SY: There was only one principal for all the schools?

NS: Yeah, because he took care of all the class. Although we had two camps, don't forget, one and two, so he was one camp no principal.

SY: Camp One.

NS: Camp One principal.

SY: And do you know how he ended up at the camp?

NS: Well, I really don't know. He had a job, that's, as a job. I guess looking for a job. He was a young man at that time, he just got married, and so there was a job that they wanted, hakujin, principal with knowledge of being a principal, and he asked for that job and he got it. And then he got married, and then Mrs. Richardson wanted me to... 'cause she got pregnant after that, and then I became the babysitter.

SY: And this all happened while they were in camp?

NS: Camp, yeah. And they were lucky because don't forget, they got to stay in the camp, too. They had separate place, naturally, they got their own place of their own. They had kitchen. So I was able to stay in there and babysit. I used to walk from my barrack, though. It was kind of far, but it was hot in Arizona, so I still remember that. I had umbrella, carried umbrella and walked over there every day.

SY: So how did their place compare with where you were living, in the barracks?

NS: Oh, it was nice. They had a separate bedroom, living room and kitchen, place to cook. It's like a house; it's like an apartment.

SY: But it was still, from the outside, did it look like a barrack?

NS: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

SY: But they just had better inside.

NS: Oh, yeah. Separate thing, like I say, the kitchen. Like in the camp, we didn't have kitchen. We just had one bedroom and that's it.

SY: And it was far from where you were.

NS: Yeah. Because all the people that worked, hakujin people that worked in camp had their own place way on the end of the camp, so I had to walk. And then the hospital was on this side.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.