<Begin Segment 15>

MN: Now, when the war ended, your father went out of camp by himself. Was your mother worried about him being out there by himself?

AS: No.

MN: Where did your father go?

AS: Well, he decided to go to Chicago and New York, Washington, D.C. He was determined to see the Capitol. He went and asked the cab driver to take him on the Hill, he thought it was just a wonderful thing for him to see the Capitol. And he ended up in New Orleans, Louisiana, and then came back to camp to get us.

MN: So he went to New Orleans. Can you share with us the story of how your father found a job there?

AS: That was sort of an interesting thing. In camp, he noticed shredded shrimp which we would call oboro ebi, and he noticed the address was Gulf Food Products in New Orleans and he remembered that. So he went to see this man who was Chinese. He couldn't speak English, so they both communicated with writing kanji, and that's how they got to know each other. Mr. C.D. Hoy invited him to come to live in New Orleans, so he came home, got his family, and packed us up, went to New Orleans.

MN: What month and year did the entire family leave Rohwer to New Orleans?

AS: All I remember is October 1945.

MN: What did your father do at Gulf Foods?

AS: That was the shrimp business, so packing, we were packing shrimp, and at the same time he would be communicating with (...) Japan and California in those days, to try to (sell) any kind of seafood. (...) I remember the last thing that he was doing was the oyster shells that they would get in the Gulf, he would use, purchase it, somehow send it to Japan for the shells to make buttons. Japan made buttons out of oyster shells.

MN: Now also, before the war, your father worked for the Hawaii newspaper and then the Sangyo Nippo. Did he write for any Japanese American newspapers after the war?

AS: Rafu Shimpo.

MN: Japanese section or English section?

AS: Japanese.

MN: Do you know what he wrote in his columns?

AS: I do not know.

MN: How often did he write?

AS: It came out periodically, and that's how a lot of people would communicate with him. And we had many, many visitors coming to New Orleans, 'cause we were sort of in a central focal point.

MN: Did he write under his real name?

AS: He had a pen name. I don't know where it is; written somewhere.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright &copy; 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.