<Begin Segment 14>

EO: So just before we get into registration, there were some other things that we had talked about... about, like, just as a woman, some of the basic necessities, what, were you able to get these basic necessities? Were you able to get Kotex?

AH: Oh yes, uh-huh. The first month, or second, first couple of months we were there, I was still, as... let's see. Yes, I was still having my regular menstrual period. But unable to get sanitary napkins to help me over those periods. We had, therefore, to tear up rags to use in place of sanitary napkins, and the, what was set up as a cooperative store for necessities like toothpaste and things like that, a little shop set up, one could buy some items like that there. But if one didn't have money, one couldn't buy anything. So I remember being short on supply of sanitary napkins and making do with whatever I could get a hold of. Of course, once I got pregnant, which was three months into the camp, then that stopped. But there was also the fact of toilet tissues. That was in short supply or sometimes non-existent in the latrines. And I recall we were tearing up magazines and trying to soften them up by rubbing them together -- [laughs] -- and using them. So I've had sort of a phobia about toilet tissues all these years, and my husband, present husband, sees to it that I always have a supply, extra dozen on hand, just in case. I don't know if you remember, but fifteen, twenty, fifteen, twenty years ago there was a scare that there was going to be a toilet tissue supply... not embargo, shortage. And I recall -- my daughters make fun of me -- I recall rushing out to the supermarket and getting loaded up, loading ourselves up with toilet tissue. But it's a hangover from camp days when the toilet supply was non-existent, practically.

And the toilet, of course, the bathroom situation was another real, real, horrifying situation. When we first went into the camps, it was, the toilets were not separated. No one had any privacy to answer nature's call in private. And the shower was sort of like a community shower for the women. And Japanese women are known to be pretty modest about things like that. And it was a very hard adjustment for many to make to share showering facilities and toilet facilities. Eventually the toilets were separated, which was helpful. I recall many women waiting until the dead of night -- I think men, too, probably -- so that they could have their regular bowel movement in private. Many of their neighbors all had the same idea, so you'd find in the wee hours of the morning that the latrines would be just as busy because everyone was looking for some privacy.

These things, the lack of privacy, the shortage of water, the lack of running water, the inability to make your own food when you wanted to, and, of course, primarily, the lack of, the loss of liberty, these were major, major denials that we suffered. And I think it's something we take so much for granted as free Americans, we take our life too much for granted. So going through an experience like camp the way we did makes me and I'm sure many other Nisei and Nikkei, appreciate freedom.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 1994, 2003 Densho and Emiko Omori. All Rights Reserved.