<Begin Segment 24>

SY: And the, and you mentioned that you get the, you don't really get involved with these reunions, but you have been to some of the reunions with the Children's Village?

KS: I went to one. And this was one of the first ones that was arranged, of people from the orphanage and the, some of the supervisors that were there, that we got together for a luncheon type of deal, just get together and get, reestablish...

SY: It was more social.

KS: Yeah, social.

SY: No, no discussion of...

KS: Not really. We had personal discussions between those that I could remember them doing anything. The others were like total strangers to me. I, yeah, they probably were there, but I wasn't even conscious of them there.

SY: And your, your brother and sister, you never talked to them about it? Or do you ever talk to them about... not really? Their, their memories are totally separate from yours.

KS: Their memory's totally separate from mine. In fact what they were accustomed to and what their knowledge is as to what took place in the course of the last thirty or forty years, it's probably like three separate books. What I remember as I remember it is totally different from what my brother remembers of the same particular time period, and it's probably totally different from what my sister remembers. So we may crisscross certain areas, common, like Crocker Street Hotel, or Crocker Street house, and the Washington and Vermont area home, and the home over in East L.A., and the Toyo Hotel. I don't know how much of them they would remember any of these things, but my memory is, what, two years...

SY: Older.

KS: Older than theirs.

SY: But it really, in terms of a camp, you have a fairly vivid memory of it.

KS: A certain time, little certain incidences, I have a very vivid memory. In fact, one of the things that, when I was first assigned into the living quarters area, and I wasn't happy with the pants that they issued me, it was a bright maroon color pants, and I said, "Jeez, I don't wear that kind of color." But in the orphanage situation you have no choice. You wear what they, whatever clothes they have that will fit you that you wear. You don't have a choice of wearing something fancy.

SY: And that was something that they did, basically, is they just gave you clothes --

KS: Yeah, they have a certain number of clothes and they have a certain number of certain sizes. They know you were this size here and they give you that, and you wear that.

SY: And so when you left the orphanage, did you take things with you?

KS: I don't remember. I don't even remember what, how my father and mother actually got any additional clothing for us while we lived in, as an independent, as an independent family. I didn't, it never even came to our thoughts. But then I know that that red pants never showed up again. [Laughs]

SY: Would you say, though, that possessions are not all that important to you, even now?

KS: The, there are certain things that are important, but in general, like clothing and some of the material things like that, it's a transitional thing. You need it for today, tomorrow, and if you have, it's not a situation, "I have to have it thirty years from now." I can work with it, I can wear it, and if it looks like it's worn or torn, it can go in the trashcan or it can go to Salvation Army. I have no attachment to those, some of those things. Though I have memories of certain articles that I had gotten, it's not that it's a life and death situation, I have to keep it. But I like to keep it if it's there. If it's not there, I'm not gonna cry over it.

SY: But the things you make are probably more important than --

KS: No, they're not.

SY: Really?

KS: I give them to those children, and I figure, I expected them to tear it up in order to get into the box. [Laughs] It's like an envelope. It's just what it is, it's like an envelope. Yeah, I'm tickled that they would, they treasure it as they do, and so from that standpoint, yes, I appreciate the fact that they do treasure it 'cause it was several hours, several days, and sometimes several weeks of making that thing. And it only takes 'em five minutes to open it up, you know. [Laughs] But I had my fun. I had my joy in making it. I created special tools to make it, I created special methods of making it, and I did, I did that kind of thing. I implemented some special ideas that I had into it. You don't need to know; it's just to my own satisfaction that I created something to make something to do something, it went together, it worked. And then once it's out of my hands, it's out of my hands.

SY: That's great. That's really great.

<End Segment 24> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.