<Begin Segment 9>

SY: So ultimately, though, did you end up living with your father in camp?

KS: Yeah. From the orphanage, I think the last year, probably the last year or year and a half or so, Father was assigned a family quarters and which, then the orphanage released us into his custody and we stayed with him. He continued to do some camp work, like building the auditorium. That is something I'm very aware of. And I don't know whether it's several months or, several months later my wife was, I mean my mother was brought to the camp and released to my father at that point, and I guess from there we moved, as far as I can recall, we only moved one more time, to Block 18, which was the last place that we, I remember before the camp closed.

SY: So I know it's probably hard in sense of time, but you were in the orphanage, do you have any idea how long that was that you were there?

KS: I figure, I mean, my time is so messed up, I don't recall exactly the length of time, but I would figure close to a year, or somewhere in that vicinity.

SY: And then lived with your father alone for another few months before your mother arrived?

KS: Yeah.

SY: And then when your mother arrived, you were all in one room, all five of you?

KS: One room.

SY: And was that, what was that like, being reunited with your parents?

KS: I really don't know. Right offhand, I can't even, I can't even give you an impression because I remember just dusty place and it was cold, and there wasn't much in the way of comfort 'cause you had just a cot and a few blankets and all that sort of thing. It wasn't exactly a homey situation, and the relationship that my mother and my father and I had, or was exposed to at that time, since they were gone at a vital point of our growing up period, and when this, when the thing was cut by having them disappear, it never came back together as far as my mind is concerned. So we never joined as a family. We were just five bodies in a common room.

SY: And you did pretty much everything on your own still.

KS: Yeah.

SY: So was there, and there was never any discussion about what happened?

KS: No. Like I said...

SY: The language.

KS: The language barrier was become more dominant. And I don't think he had it in him to even explain, 'cause he was embarrassed of whatever happened and he did not delve into anything of where he was, where we went, what happened or anything like that. So he would just, wanted to make sure that, I don't even know if he was conscious of whether the comfort was of any concern on his part, but I know he, as a father he probably was. But as children, we just lived day to day and, "Yeah, we're cold. Yeah, we're this, that." Dust, the dust didn't bother us. We looked down in the floor and see the ground on the bottom. [Laughs]

SY: And the conditions, did you notice, did you feel like, "Oh, this is way different than what it was like when we --"

KS: No, we never made a comparison. I mean, I didn't make a comparison.

SY: It was still a barracks.

KS: It was just a barracks, another place to live, and one other place to sleep. [Laughs]

SY: And then how was it, you obviously had to change schools, then, too? Or did you go, end up going to the same school?

KS: I think we went, I really don't recall, but I think we went to the same school and the same Miss Sandwich was still, that's the only teacher I recall there. It was the same teacher, so --

SY: So you had the same friends and saw the same people.

KS: Yeah.

SY: So you didn't really feel any kind of big --

KS: I didn't feel the separation or anything.

SY: -- big difference between...

KS: No. In fact, we, I wasn't even conscious of the separation at all. I would, yeah, I was there at the orphanage, yeah, I was there at the Block 18 and stuff, but it, there was no, shall we say, this is another chapter. It didn't have that situation.

SY: And how about eating? Did you eat with your friends?

KS: We ate in the common mess hall.

SY: And you, with your friends as opposed to your parents?

KS: Well, we, I imagine we ate with our parents. We didn't separate from the parents, going wandering off to other areas.

SY: And your sister rejoined you too. She was pretty young, right?

KS: Yeah. I, like I said, I didn't pay attention to her, so I don't have no idea. [Laughs] She didn't exist.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.