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PW: So in 1941, you were a very, very young child when December 7th happened and the United States entered the war. I'm sure that your family was in shock having to cope with this. Do you have any memories of that time?

HS: I wish I did. I wish I did, but I don't. I don't, because by then, I was born in '37 in December. So it was December of '41, wasn't it? What was that then, five years? I just don't remember. No, five years, four years. Yeah, I have no memory of Pearl Harbor or anything that my father or mother said or whether they were very alarmed or not. But it's funny that we did go to the Stockton County Fairgrounds, there was a county fairgrounds in Stockton. And so we first were sent there. It seems like I can smell the hay or the manure or something like that, because that kind of stays with me. But I don't recall the living conditions there, but I've heard that people used, put hay in bags, and we used to sleep on that.

I don't know how long we were there, but eventually, they decided to send us, who were in Stockton Assembly, they called it Stockton Assembly Center, they sent us to Rohwer, Arkansas. And my memory of that, I do remember that when we were taking the train, I do remember just a very slim memory of when we were going to Rohwer, Arkansas, way across or halfway across the country, that I remember that we went on a train and there were black curtains on the window. We couldn't even see out. So I don't even know whether my parents knew where we were going, but they tell us that we can bring one bag each or something like that, so I'm sure that my parents brought whatever they thought was necessary to wherever we were going to go.

PW: And your grandmother and grandfather Yokoi were also with you?

HS: Yes, yes. I don't even recall that, but yes, they were in camp, so they had to, also have been going... they were with us in camp. They were in the same barracks as us in Rohwer. So we took up, I don't know how many units there were, but my grandmother and grandfather and my parents and my, the three of us girls lived in whatever rooms they gave us.

PW: Any memories at all of Rohwer, Arkansas?

HS: Just the bits and pieces. I remember that we had neighbors that were across from us. That I remember, that we had neighbors, and I remember that we had friends. So went to school, and I see pictures, so that's why I know. I don't recall being, sitting in the school room being taught. But I know that I've seen a picture of our teacher and my classmates in photos that were taken. And I don't know who took them, whether it was my father... I think we couldn't have cameras, I heard, so I don't know where the photos came from, but I do have photos of camp, of the whole block. And my mother was involved in sewing, she was a seamstress, she learned to be a seamstress. So there's a picture of her, herself and other women who were in the sewing class. It's what I remember about camp, yeah. We just... I thought it was fun because of the friends I had. And I don't remember the mess halls because I know that we had to go into the mess hall, but I have heard that we were, we ate with kids rather than with our parents. And maybe it's because my mother probably had to work in the kitchen, you know, dishwashing or whatever had to be done. And we were too young to be by ourselves, so we probably sit with a bunch of kids and somebody else looked after us.

PW: And what about your father? Do you know if he worked, or did he have things he was involved in?

HS: My father was what they call a block manager. And so he was paid, I had heard that he was paid like sixteen dollars a month. And what he did as a block manager, I really do not know. I really do not know, but he was called a block manager. So somewhere historically I have a feeling that you could find out what they did. But he was a very capable person because when he lived on a farm, he was the one who did everything on the farm. So he could go anywhere and take care of things.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.