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DG: Why do you think people were able to... the adults were able to look on the bright side, in a lot of ways? Like your mother saying she...

HM: Well, I... the people I think were able to look on the bright side or to go on because of, of the way they were kind of brought up. There's a saying, shikata ga nai, which means, "it can't be helped." My father would always say, "You do the best with what you have and make it turn around." That's exactly, I think, what a lot of people did. There were some people who didn't. But I think that's instilled in many of the Japanese people and not only in the Japanese, I mean, all cultures probably have that same type of drive. So some people will rise up and make bad things... and take the opportunity to make things a little bit better. It's like when they first got here they knew they didn't have anything and they were... they got up and then they were knocked down, like for the, for the stock crashes and things, and then they had to work their way back up again. Then, so when they got up again, this came and they got knocked down. They just knew they had to pull themselves up and do it.

Oh, one of the things that I did which really helped me grow as a person was to have the freedom that my parents gave me. Most children and many of the adults too, kind of just stayed inside their block. They never went to another block other than going to school and then back home again. But I used to run around all over that camp. You know, we lived in Block 44, which was, which was a special block that they built when they heard that the island, Bainbridge Islanders, were gonna come. I used to go across the firebreaks and go to the canteen, go to the movies, go down to Block 6 and Block 8, to the hospital area, all the way to the farms. I used to run around all over that, the whole camp, with the Kino girls. Their father worked down in Block 6 or something, so I'd go down there with them. They gave me the freedom to do that kind of stuff. I also know that I love to iron. It's so hot hot hot in the summer there, and I'm ironing away and have the radio on and I'm singing away. I had, I'm sure I know, remember most of the wartime songs because I'd sing all the time. And so I had a very, very happy childhood. Sachi Koura -- used to be before she was married to Mo Nakata -- started up a little girls club for us. So the kids our age would meet in one of the, in one of the empty rooms, and we'd have a club. We started making a rag rug and we'd braid the rug and, I don't know how much we worked on the rug, but we'd play seance and blindfold people and say you're gonna hit the ceiling and tap them on the head and things like that, you know. So we did have a lot of fun.

One thing I do not remember, however, is my schooling there. I think I blocked that all out. I don't remember how I learned how to read. I don't remember any of the kids. I don't remember my teachers. All I remember is after school and the summer vacations. [Laughs] So I do remember a lot about camp, but not about anything about school. I do remember missing my friends from Bainbridge. 'Cause we used to play paper dolls and I named some of my paper dolls after some of the kids that I went to school with in my kindergarten class. We used to collect movie stars. So you'd write to them and they'd send you an autographed photo or we'd get all these magazines and things like that. All in all I did have a very happy, happy childhood. I guess people grow up differently and families grow up differently. I know that even my siblings stayed in Block 44 while I was the one who ran around. So everyone has a different life, even if you're allowed to do things. Or maybe I wasn't allowed and I just went. Who knows? [Laughs]

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2007 Densho. All Rights Reserved.