<Begin Segment 15>

DG: So, what did you think about people getting interned here. Japanese Americans in the state side?

SS: Unfortunately, I never gave it a thought until my dad got interned.

DG: Okay... so, now when your dad got interned, and you told us already a little bit about that, how did you... once you decided that you all had to go, how did you get ready?

SS: Well, for one thing we didn't have warm clothing, because in Hawaii all year round it's pretty warm. About the heaviest thing we had was sweaters. So my girlfriend, Marion, offered and came to help me sew some clothes. And we thought we'd be warm enough, but once we got to Jerome, we didn't realize how cold, cold really is. And if it wasn't for the pea coats and all that that they issued, I think that we would have frozen, 'cause January in Jerome was cold... very cold. But the one thing I want to stress is, when we went on a convoy from Hawaii to San Francisco and then, we boarded a train, they had all the shades down so we couldn't see anything until we got to Jerome. But we stopped in Little Rock, the train stopped in Little Rock. And 'til this day, I can still picture the black people, standing alongside the train with buckets and the food that we couldn't eat, that was discarded, they were picking up. And... that's when I think, besides my father being interned, I realized discrimination was terrible. That here, a country that said they were so rich and yet, the people had to line up to pick up the food that was discarded from the train -- because the food they served us was really not that good, it wasn't delicious at all -- and to have people... I hate to think about it. I... I think that's the reason I don't want to talk about evacuation and all.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.