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SY: So were there any traditional Japanese celebrations that were celebrated in camp?

YM: I never heard of one. Of course, we celebrated New Year's.

SY: Oh, how did you do that?

YM: Well, there isn't much of a celebration. So let's see. The cook in our mess hall used to make osushi and would give us that and it was good. It wasn't the best, but it was good. And instead of giving us hard boiled eggs, they used to make tamagoyaki and give it to us and that was good. And once in a while we got fish. I wonder how they made that fish, but it was very good.

SY: There was a time you mentioned a cook who made some sashimi.

YM: Yeah. But we... in our block 42, the next block was 40. I think 40. 40, 42 and further down, I think, 4, 5 or I don't know, but we had cooks. We had real cooks that used to be cooking before the war, and so they came in and took over so I even remember the cook's name: Mr. Ogawa. But I don't know block 40 name, but they were supposed to be real good cooks. And so he really tried hard to make things easy for us. Otherwise, we had hard boiled eggs or fried eggs. Oh, God. And then cold toast or we had hot cakes and by the time we got it, it was so cold we couldn't eat it. So Mrs. Ogawa used to make Japanese food for us and that was more enjoyable. And I remember meeting one young man, Ronald, I think his name was, from Hawaii. And he got caught and he was sent to camp, but he says, "I want to you listen to what that man is saying." Instead of saying syrup, he would say pass me the "shut up." [Laughs] And he says, "Did you hear what he said?" I said, "He said shut up, didn't he?" He says, "Yeah, but what is shut up because he keeps pointing," it was syrup. [Laughs] We had little incidents like that and kind of funny. But this Ronald was a nice young man, but he went out to Chicago or someplace out that way because he couldn't stand the camp life. He says, "I thought I heard right, shut up," but it was syrup he wanted. But Issei dakara, you know.

SY: So when you were in camp, did you associate more with the Issei or the Nisei?

YM: We had no choice. We associate with people within the block, and they were a combination of Issei and Nisei. I mean, yeah, Issei and Nisei.

SY: I guess, who would be more of your friends?

YM: It's a mixture.

SY: Mixture. That's interesting.

Yukiko M. Interview - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved. - <End Segment 30>