<Begin Segment 22>

AI: So before you had been forced to leave your home, you were on the point of graduating from high school. And so you must have, at that time, some plans for your future. What were some your plans?

CN: To go college. That was a definite plan from way back.

AI: Something that your parents had encouraged you in.

CN: Uh-huh. And so that was, that was a given. And in those days, anyone living in the country, as they called it, all went to, most all of them went to WSU. And the city folk went to the University of Washington. So since we had the flower shop in Seattle and we were close to Seattle U, it was a choice between UW and Seattle U. And my parents thought well, it would be closer, but more expensive going to Seattle U, but by bus the University of Washington wouldn't be so bad. So it's at that point that we were evacuated.

AI: Right. And then finding yourself in Tule Lake with your plans cut off so abruptly. What did you end up doing there in camp? Did you take a job?

CN: Yeah, we took a job. I took a job. I signed up to work as a nurse's aide. And they put us through training. We had a Caucasian, elderly -- maybe I shouldn't call her elderly -- older nurse, very prim and proper and very nice person. And she had extremely high standards. And so we went through training, and then we were placed in various departments. They placed me in major surgery, if you can imagine.

AI: At your age?

CN: Uh-huh.

AI: And with such little training?

CN: With no training, but once I got there -- and my other, my friends were placed in pediatrics and this place and that place, but I was placed -- it was kind of scary, really, with all these surgeons. There were several outstanding ones from UC Berkley.

AI: Were they Caucasian or Japanese Americans?

CN: No. They were Japanese Americans. And they started me off in making the sponges, or "cherries" they called them, but gauze balls so that you could pick them up and clean up blood and all that. So I spent hours and hours making those and gradually they taught me about how to scrub and keeping everything immaculately clean. And there were two Nisei men, young men, who worked as orderlies, and they would sterilize the instruments as well as all the lap robes they called them. Or lap... what it was was the sheets that were used to cover the area, (...) to be opened up. And so a lot of emphasis, of course, on sterile techniques, which I found was very difficult to remember, and I'd forget and touch things. And so... I really enjoyed it very much, and met some wonderful people.

AI: And was this a regular forty hour a week job?

CN: Yeah, it was a regular job.

AI: Every day you would be reporting in.

<End Segment 22> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.