<Begin Segment 38>

SY: And so again, as you look back on... how would you characterize the happiest time of your life?

NS: Oh, I think bringing up kids, I got married and had kids, that's the time that I was happy.

SY: That was the happiest. Yeah, so it was after the war?

NS: Oh, yeah. And the kids, kids getting married, bringing up the kids.

SY: So fond memories you had of camp, the social life and all that, it didn't...

NS: It didn't affect me that much. I mean, it was fun. At that time it was fun, but I mean, what kind of fun is that? You forget about it. You had fun at that time, yes, but you forget it because it's not a true kind of fun. It's a daily life thing that they had in camp.

SY: So do you talk about this with your kids and your...

NS: Yeah, that we did this and we did that sometime. Well, my kids were asking me, too.

SY: So you're very open about all your experiences in camp. That's wonderful.

NS: Well, I hope that our kids don't have to go. [Laughs] I hope we never have that kind of life. I mean, it was, I can't say we didn't have fun, we didn't have to work. Of course I did, I worked, but then what I'm saying is we had fun. It was not like working out on the farm. Otherwise I'd be working out on the farm.

SY: I wanted to mention, too, that you were reunited with the little boy you babysat.

NS: Yeah. That was really something. It was in the newspaper, it was everything, it had a big party, and they had a big party for me with him. Oh, gosh, he's grown. He's an old man now. I saw a picture, Christmas picture, he's an old man. [Laughs] I can't picture him that. He was such a cute baby.

SY: Because when you left him, how old was he?

NS: Oh, gosh. He was a year old, maybe.

SY: Not even a year.

NS: He was born in camp, see. And I wanted to leave right away, but then I was taking care of him. I guess a year old, I guess.

SY: Was it difficult leaving?

NS: No. I think he didn't know it. But when I used to go home and say goodbye to him, 'cause I was taking care of him, then he used to cry, and he didn't want me to go home.

SY: But as far as leaving camp, it wasn't...

NS: No, because he was getting older and he was going to school. I left, when he was in school I left, so he didn't know. I didn't want to say goodbye to him.

SY: And his parents, were you very close to his parents?

NS: Oh, yeah, oh, yeah.

SY: So were they sad to see --

NS: Only son, too. She never had a baby after that.

SY: But were they upset when you left?

NS: Well, she said, "I hope I could see you," she said.

SY: And so what did she say to you when you met them again?

NS: Oh. Well, he says... you mean at the thing?

SY: It was a reunion.

NS: He doesn't remember. He doesn't remember me. I mean, he was a baby, so he doesn't remember me. His mother talked about me, but he never... unless you see him, you can't imagine anything. He was a baby, so they don't remember anything.

SY: But you did say that his mother talked about you.

NS: Yeah, all the time. He has a picture of me. I have his picture, too.

SY: As a baby.

NS: Yeah. That's what I talked about it and said, there's a babysitter. I have a picture of me with him, so that's a babysitter, so tells about being a babysitter.

SY: So really you have a lot of people who were not Japanese that you became friends with throughout those years, right?

NS: You mean during the war?

SY: Yeah, during the war.

NS: Well, not in camp. I mean, there's no...

SY: Well, but the Stricklands being one.

NS: No. There's not that American people living in camp, so they were the only one.

SY: They were the only one.

NS: They were the only ones. So I didn't get to see any other people, except for some of the nurses and doctors, some of the hakujin doctors. But mostly it was Japanese, so they all hired Japanese people instead. Later on, that is. They changed.

SY: And since you weren't in school, you didn't have, they were teachers, I think.

NS: No, no. But I don't know. When you think back, I had a good time, I thought, meeting a lot of friends. Of course, I don't know where they are now, they're dead or what, I don't know. We didn't contact each other that well. I often wonder, the ones that we used to go to movie together, we did things together. We had picnics together. Those are the thing that we come back thinking about them, but I don't know where they are. It's too bad that we didn't contact. Of course, they have their own life, so...

<End Segment 38> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.