<Begin Segment 28>

DG: Okay, back to 1946, how were you treated by the Japanese nationals?

SS: Looked down. [Laughs] We looked like them but we couldn't speak like them.

DG: So the occupation forces, were they treated the same way? Were there a lot of hakujins then?

SS: Yeah, then, because you figure the field grade officers, hardly any Asians. All whites.

DG: Were they feared?

SS: No, on the whole the field grade officers, they were all really nice. They were nice.

DG: And so, what were the Japanese people? I mean they were defeated... they were a defeated nation?

SS: [Pauses] It was a poor, defeated...

DG: Like your aunt, back in Hiroshima, what did she... She said you were stupid to come back. But then --

SS: They --

DG: ...what was her feeling about Japan at that time?

SS: They still had their Japanese pride. The only thing was that they didn't have enough food but they (still) thought they were more superior than us you know.

DG: They weren't embarrassed or anything, about the war?

SS: No. And I didn't want to bring it up. After all... we were at their mercy, we had no house, we had no food, we had to rely on them. [Laughs] Right?

<End Segment 28> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.