<Begin Segment 17>

LH: As a small child, do you remember, how did you understand where you lived and why you were living in this place?

MS: Well, we never really... at least I never asked at that age. You just accepted things that happened, and I know that it didn't seem like my parents were willing to explain anything.

LH: Was it frightening?

MS: At the beginning, it was kind of exciting, 'cause it was different, and that "Camp Harmony" was horrible, you know, the assembly center we had just left. So I thought this would be a little bit better. Certainly was bigger and spread out more, and our quarters were a little bit larger anyway. So I didn't feel frightened. I do remember in the evening, in the distance, I would hear the train whistles. And I used to think, "Oh my goodness, I wish I could be on that train going someplace." I just remember that, so that's real nostalgic to me. Every time I hear a train whistle right now I think about that. And I think of when I was young in camp. That's what you could hear a lot was in the distance. I wasn't scared. I think our parents did such a good job of keeping us, just telling us this is what we're going, this is what our life is going to be like and just accept it. And perhaps that's part of the Japanese culture that says shikata ga nai. You take whatever you are given and you work with it. And I guess that's what we decided we're supposed to do, too. There were times I attempted to ask, but I was cut off short. Or, they let you know that you were not supposed to ask some questions, that you just obeyed and that was it. So I did that. I had a lot of obachans, ladies that were in camp around us, so although my parents were busy with camp work, I always knew I had someone that was there to look out for me and make sure I didn't get into mischief.

<End Segment 17> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.