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PW: Do you remember the home in the neighborhood, where you were growing up in Linden on the ranch as you called it, can you remember anything about that?

HS: I remember it only because I don't have memory of before camp. I tried very hard to try to remember. But when we came back, it was as-is. So whatever was there when we came back is where we were living when I was born. And the house is still there to this day. There's another family that lives there, but it was intact when we got home. We were very fortunate because many people lost not only their homes, but they lost their furniture and their cars and everything because they had to rush off, they were sent to camp very quickly. But because we had, because it was in the country or on a farm, no one took it over. And as I said, everything was as-is. We had Italian neighbors that lived on both sides of us, each side of us. And they kind of looked after the farm. And even in the summertime -- I mean, not summertime but more like springtime, they would even send boxed cherries to us in camp, to camp. They were really nice. And we went to school with them, with these neighbors. So they were friends, not just neighbors. So that was something that was very pleasant, and we were happy about that. And the car, even the car, my father had bought a 1940 new Chrysler, very, very nice car. But that even had to stay, of course. And when we got back, he just got back to using the same 1940 Chrysler. So, as I said, we were one of the fortunate ones who didn't really lose anything of value during that time.

PW: Can you describe what your father was like? Just personality or what he looked like?

HS: Yeah, I think my father was a very handsome man. [Laughs] But he was very quiet, stoic, he didn't talk very much. My mother wasn't chatty, but between the two of them, she was the one that talked more. And he didn't want to scold us, so when he wanted to say something to us, he'd go through my mom and say, "Helen did something wrong," or, "Toshiko did something wrong, so you have to tell her that she must do better or she must change her ways." So my father never wanted to scold his children, and it was no spanking, nothing that would resemble physical or mental punishment.

PW: And what about your mother? Same thing?

HS: And my mother is, yeah, she was a gentle person, actually. She was told to do that, but she never did anything much, too. So I don't mean we got away with anything, we were good kids. So we never gave them grief, I guess.

PW: Well, at this time, because I'm still mentally in the prewar period, you're still very, very young children. She's got three little babies.

HS: Yes, that's right.

PW: And the baachan and jiichan, the grandparents.

HS: Who also lived, yes, with the four of us.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.