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JO: But at the same time, Stanley was writing letters that I had never seen. And it wasn't until after the book actually had gone to press that I discovered that his sister had a cache of letters that she and Stanley had exchanged. All of the letters that Stanley wrote to her, plus the letters she had written to the family. And in that collection was also a very short diary. She had sent him a small diary book that she had requested while he was in the service. I think he did not understand that he wouldn't be allowed to keep a diary. But on the ship going to Europe, and when he left New York, he recalled the time, his time in the army in ways that the letters simply don't tell. And about eating at Miyako's and going to see Oklahoma! and visiting his sister and where she lived, which happened to be on a street, adjacent to a street where I worked forty years later.

TI: In New York City?

JO: In New York City. And then Sach's letters to her family are also amazing because her letters tell about what it was like to be a young Japanese American woman who left camp. We know that many of them went out to work, to go to school, and she had to do both.

TI: So I'm guessing as a writer, you're just thinking, oh, all this rich material is coming to light after you essentially finished the book.

JO: The frustration is immense. Because her story... it puts, again, it turns that light in another direction and focuses on material that would have enriched the telling in the book. I had to use other families, other people's accounts as opposed to Hayami family accounts. And it tells me a great deal about what young Japanese American women, young Nisei women, were going through. I mean, she worked for a doctor's family in order to have a place to live, and the impositions were great. She was expected to take care of their children, to cook, to wash, to do everything, and to go to school. And the school situation was not great for her either. And her family, she felt guilty about her family, and she could not go home easily -- not home, she could not go back to camp to see them. So she was constantly buying things for them, and doing them things for them as much as she could. And Stanley's letters to her were written in a different voice than the letters to his parents, because he could write in slang to her. She was his big sister, and she was always there for him. She could always tell him, he gave him advice on what courses to take. She sent him art materials, she supported his desire to be an artist and a writer. She wanted to be a clothing designer, so they were kindred souls.

TI: I'm sorry, now, were you ever able to talk with her?

JO: Unfortunately, her husband had a stroke and she was in an automobile accident. She's still alive, and she's in a nursing home. And her daughter found the letters in the garage of her home -- no, in a closet, in a closet in her home. But her mother would never speak with me. She was in and out of... I'm not sure that she totally could have spoken to me. I've never been able to get quite whether she doesn't want to or she can't. I think she couldn't, for physical reasons, but maybe also for such emotional reasons. This letter, the diaries, the artwork that was in the yearbook, the original artwork, was on a shelf in her closet. Her little brother's family was very dear to her. He was not her littlest brother, she had a big brother, and then she had Walter, her younger brother, who was always there for her. And Walter has passed away, but Sach is still alive in a nursing home, but I'm not sure that she would approve that there's a book. It's one of my great regrets, that I could not meet her, because I admire her so much for all that she did. She was the only daughter, but she was a true daughter in the sense of caring for them. She went shopping for fishing rods for her father, and she didn't smoke, but she sent the cigarettes home to him when she wanted. She went shopping all over for fabric for her mother, and the right crochet yarn for her mother, and the right needles to crochet with. She was constantly on the go and taking care of their needs as much as they could, as they were for her. And some of the letters that Stanley wrote while she was in college and while she was away are wonderful because he took dictation from his father and he would write them the way his father spoke them.

TI: That's good. Now, those letters, what did the family do with them? Where are they now?

JO: Well, I encouraged them to give them to the museum so that they would be together with his diary. Sach's daughter had to go to court to get the letters, to get to allow other people to read them legally, and then she gave them as a gift along with a short diary to JANM so they would be with the diary, with the original diary. I digitized them, I couldn't work with them unless I digitized them, but they're not online anyplace yet. And they really, they're wonderful. He did illustrations in his letters, so he has pictures of himself in uniform that's way too big. [Laughs] And then he tells stories about basic training and what that was like. He had a sense of humor; Stanley had a great sense of humor.

TI: Good, okay.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2013 Densho. All Rights Reserved.