<Begin Segment 18>

MN: Now in 1945, your father was the first in the family to leave the camp. Do you know where he went?

BS: Yes, probably in the spring of '45, people were able to even go back to the Pacific Coast in January 1945. But he went east. First we knew he was going to Minneapolis, St. Paul area in Minnesota, so he wrote to us, he said, "No, I think I'm going to Chicago." Then next thing he said, no, he was at Seabrook Farms, Bridgeton, New Jersey. He said, "Okay, we're going to go there." That was the largest, shall we say, segregation or camp of Japanese Americans there. In fact, Seabrook Farms recruited in the camps to come out and live there and farm at Seabrook Farms, so he said, okay, we'll go there. But the next thing you know, he came back into the camp, and then the war ended. And then he said, "Okay, we'll go back to Los Angeles." So that's, I believe in August of '45, he came back to Los Angeles looking for a place. And then he called out my older brother and myself, my brother was sixteen, I was fourteen, he says, "Oh, come out, then we'll find a place."

So we went to a friend's place, we stayed there a couple nights, and then I found a job at Harbor City rabbit farm. So I got to live there, but I have to work for my food there, so I had to feed the rabbits, clean their droppings, water them before school and after school. So then that way they let me sleep there and they fed me. And then my older brother lived in the Silver Lake area, so sort of an upper middle class place, and he got to work at a Caucasian's house, and he did housework, mow the lawn, wash the dishes, and that's his work. So we called it schoolboy jobs, so he had to go there because my parents couldn't find a place yet. And eventually come closer to November, he found a place in West Los Angeles, so he had my mother, my brother, two sisters come out of camp at that time.

MN: Now, going back when you first heard the war was over, how did you feel?

BS: I thought, well, good, get to go back to Los Angeles and see my old friends.. That was my first reaction. And then, not restrained by the barbed wire fence, go to movies any time we want, didn't have to wait in long lines like that, and eat whenever we want and things like that. Because mess hall, it wasn't bad for me, but I hated the idea to wait in line and then eat like that.

MN: And then you came out, you're doing schoolboy in Harbor City, and is this the first time you're going to school in a predominately Caucasian school?

BS: Yes. Because the elementary school, I went to Maryknoll, which is a Japanese American Catholic school, and then camp was all Japanese, so this was the first time I was exposed to Caucasian, and I didn't have any prejudicial problem with him, but I had problem with my name. I was using Hiroshi Shishima, and they would massacre it. So then I started to use my given first name, which was William, and then from there, they just started calling me Bill. So I dropped my Japanese name after camp because Caucasian students as well as teachers had problems pronouncing my name. So for less embarrassment to myself, I started using William.

MN: So you'd been going to school in camp, at Heart Mountain, and when you started to go to school in Harbor City, were you able to keep up?

BS: Yes, I had no problem, yes. I enjoyed school and Caucasian buddies, seemed like especially at PE time, I was more athletic than a majority of the kids, so I always got chosen first or second to be on someone's team. So I felt great.

MN: Want to share that story about how you got chosen?

BS: Oh, okay. Because usually PE we divide up, okay, you get to play basketball now or softball or football, and usually I got chosen first, but lots didn't remember my name because we're all new in the school. So they called, "I choose that Jap boy." So first I sort of felt offended, but yet, I felt that it wasn't derogatory because I got selected first or early, so I felt good about it. So people started saying "the Jap boy" until they knew who was I was, and then they'll say Bill.

MN: Now when you first came out, in Harbor City you were going to Narbonne, is that right?

BS: Yes, Narbonne High School, yes.

MN: And then you were there for a short while, and then when your rest of the family came out, you went to the west side and went to University High School.

BS: Yes.

MN: Now at Narbonne, you didn't have any problems with the students or the kids? I mean the teachers. And how about University High School?

BS: I didn't have any problems with the students, but one day, I was walking home, and two little children, Caucasian children, no more than five years old, says, "Hi, man." Oh, I felt good. But no sooner this girl said, "Hi, man," the other girl said, "No, he's not a man, he's a Jap." Oh, I felt like hitting her in the mouth then, but I know someone had to teach her that. So that was my first real prejudicial contact, and it happened to be five year old kids, so I couldn't even reason with them.

MN: Now when you were living on the west side, you were renting a house with other Japanese American families. How crowded was this? I mean, did you have to eat in shifts?

BS: Well, we had, I think, three or four bedroom house. So my parents rented out to their friend. So it was just three adults, so it wasn't too bad, because we had seven of us in that house. So they just had their own section, but I'm not sure, I guess we shared the kitchen. And they had the one bathroom, we had one bathroom, that was it. So we just got a little bit cozier with our friends and that was it.

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