<Begin Segment 6>

EG: Did you have any contact with other people who were not a part of internment? Did you have any friends outside of the Japanese group that expressed concern for you, or asked about you?

PT: Oh, yes. Oh yes. We had some very, very kind friends. I remember Miss Ada Mahon, who was the principal at Bailey Gatzert School. She visited us at camp. So did... Reverend Andrews of the Baptist Church. And I had a black friend who lived in an apartment house right behind the house where I lived before being evacuated, and her name was Antonia. And Antonia and her mother and her uncle, who happened to be in the United States Navy, came to visit us, and he was in his Navy uniform. And I really appreciate all these non-Japanese, who were sympathetic to what was happening to us. And I feel that it took a great deal of courage on their part to show this.

EG: They would be kind of special people, wouldn't they? My understanding was that, of course, the prejudice was so very strong because of Pearl Harbor --

PT: Yes.

EG: -- worries and suspicions and so on. So that my guess would be, that for people to act like you were describing would be very exceptional.

PT: Oh, very definitely. And I still -- I think I mentioned to you at a previous interview -- but I still remember before we were evacuated. My mother and a friend, a very close friend of ours, they went shopping to look for basic things that they would have to take to camp. And so, I went along with them on their shopping trip. And I was interested in a pair of white wooden clogs, which my neighbor had, and so I asked my mother before we went on that shopping trip, "Are you going to buy me a pair of clogs before we go to camp?" and she said, "Yes, I will." So, of course, they had to do their shopping for the important things first, but I kept tugging at her sleeves and asking her, "Mom, when are you going to get those clogs for me?" So finally she said, "Well, I think we are ready to get your clogs now." But Nordstrom happened to be on the west side of 5th Avenue and all persons of Japanese ancestry could not cross 5th Avenue to go to the west side. Fortunately, there was a small shoe store located across the street from Nordstrom on 5th Avenue, on the east side, and so my mother and my friend took me in there, and the salesman was so kind. He took my foot measurement and he said, "You know, I don't carry the kind of clogs that you're describing to me, but I'll run, run across the street to Nordstrom and see if I can get a pair for you." And so he brought back these wonderful white clogs, and they fit me perfectly. And I was the happiest little girl, but that was an act of kindness. You know, it's these little acts of kindness that I remember.

EG: I don't understand the drawing the line down the street, that Japanese Americans weren't able to cross over the line. How was this enforced?

PT: That was getting close to the water you see...

EG: Ah.

PT: ...And so they felt that there was a lot of spying activity going on. And so, they didn't want any persons of Japanese ancestry going any closer to the water, than beyond 5th Avenue.

EG: How did they enforce that?

PT: I really don't know how they enforced it.

EG: If they caught someone across the line, they arrested him.

PT: Oh yes, yes definitely. That's what happened.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.