<Begin Segment 26>

DG: What did you feel about your civil rights being violated?

NS: Oh, there wasn't any such thing at that time. [Laughs] And people didn't enforce anything like that. I mean, this was wartime. It didn't, civil rights didn't exist in wartime.

DG: Did you question then going along with it?

NS: There was no use in questioning because things were pat. There was nothing that you could do against the army authorities and this was army.

DG: What did you think your future held for you?

NS: We didn't know what it was going to be and they didn't know. Nobody knew what it was going to be and so we just had to go with the crowd and do the best we could.

DG: Did you feel that it was...

NS: No, it was wartime and the army had the most say about things. They decided that we were going to be incarcerated and that was it.

DG: So was the army your people? Who were the Japanese that they were at war with? Was that somebody else or was that...?

NS: Probably. It was the people in Japan.

DG: And you didn't feel like...

NS: And it wasn't the people here in the United States.

DG: But here in the United States they were treating you...?

NS: Just like we were people from Japan.

DG: Did that...?

NS: Well, there was nothing we could do about it because they had the guns, the barbed wire and the authority to shoot, if anything, if anyone was questioning or inciting any activity. Why, I think the soldiers were instructed to shoot and ask questions later.

DG: So did you talk about what you should do at all?

NS: No, we just accepted what had to be done and did the best we could under the circumstances.

DG: Seems like you were constantly thinking about the needs of the community, though, in terms of -- you were right away working with the students at that time, too?

NS: Not in Puyallup, because there wasn't any relocation problem. There wasn't anything going on at that time about relocating students because this was summer time and students weren't -- students were uprooted and put into the camp. There was no setup for relocation at that time.

DG: Now, these hakujin friends that came and you talked across the fence, where were they from?

NS: Well, they were our friends in Seattle.

DG: Neighbors?

NS: Neighbors and friends.

DG: Colleagues?

NS: Well, one especially was one that we knew in Omaha. They had come over to Seattle and they were taking care of some of our things. And also, she baked a cake and brought it to us.

<End Segment 26> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.