<Begin Segment 4>

DG: Okay. Now, we kind of covered a lot of that the last time, but in general, what I want to get to is that you were constantly, in some of your letters, saying something about yourself, you wanting to leave.

NS: Yes. Well, really I didn't think it was a place for children to grow up. The younger one was in kindergarten and ready for first grade, and I wanted him to go into a normal situation, rather than in a camp situation.

DG: Okay, and what was wrong with the camp situation?

NS: Well, the teachers were not -- were pick-up teachers from the different areas, and there were... I don't know. I just felt that, being in a situation with children of all Japanese parents, and in a forced camp situation, was not normal. And so I wanted to be out where it was more of a normal situation.

DG: Now you were thinking of going to Chicago or someplace?

NS: I was thinking of going back East someplace, but since my husband was a Japanese citizen at that time, there wasn't -- he couldn't get citizenship, that Washington state was the only one that he had a license for. So we decided that Spokane was the best place to go.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.