<Begin Segment 11>

BN: Now, at Heart Mountain, did your parents do any kind of work?

SM: Well, it turns out my father, seems like he was always trying to be creative doing something that's useful. And even after he became blind, I remember his, he created a dictionary. It was all in Roman letters, so everyone who knows English could read and understand the Japanese words in English letters. And he worked on it during camp. And I remember the secretary he had hired to come in and help him after he became blind. And so he wrote this dictionary, and he published it after he went back to San Francisco. But that was just one of the examples of his work. And I found out he wrote a textbook on how to create and speak the language, Japanese language. And he started working on an autobiography about being blind. So he did a number of things in order to be very, very busy in the camp.

BN: And what happened to the autobiography?

SM: Oh, it was published. And I have a copy at home.

BN: This is in Japanese, I assume?

SM: It's in Japanese. I had it translated, but he described the story of his becoming blind and how Christianity saved him. He went to a guide school for guide dogs, having guide dogs. He obtained a guide dog, and he went traveling without other help. He wrote a book about his travels, about being blind. So he was very busy, he enjoyed being busy after camp.

BN: What about your mom? Did she work or...

SM: My mother, interesting, she had to run a business. My father started a business at the same time, which is to open a bookstore. It happened first in Salt Lake City, when we first moved to Salt Lake City and he started the bookstore.

BN: Actually, can we get back to that?

SM: Yes.

BN: Yes, I meant in Heart Mountain. Did she have a job?

SM: I don't recall her having a job.

BN: Many Issei women also did craft classes or that kind of thing.

SM: I don't remember that at all, no.

BN: And then one thing I want to ask you about is, it's a common story among Japanese Americans in the camps, that the family kind of divided, the kids would eat separately from the parents and so forth. What happened with your family? Did you eat with your friends or did you always eat together with your parents? How did that go?

SM: Well, I recall it was kind of on and off. We ate with our parents initially, but I had many friends, Shig Yabu and Yamoto brothers and others, and eventually I'd be wandering off and joining them socially. So the family, the nuclear family kind of broke up in the camp, it was not a good scene.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.