<Begin Segment 23>

SY: And in the meantime, had, did you have any thoughts about your history of being in a camp? Or was, did that ever occur to you that that might...

NG: Had been the reason why?

SY: Or did you have any kind of reference to your past in terms of having been... did you understand even, at that point, that you were separated because you were Japanese American and put in a camp?

NG: You know, I'm trying to... I don't, I don't know. I think I'm still amazed that that all happened, that we were in camp. But definitely, you, I know my mom definitely feels like there, I think she felt -- she will never say that, but I, we talked about it once and she doesn't ever say that, but she had to feel less than because they, look what happened to them, right? I mean, they were just so strong. And I don't know, I think, I'm trying to think when I started feeling, must've been after college maybe, 'cause, again, I was around Japanese kids and at UCLA I didn't, plus the fact that I didn't, I wasn't in a dorm situation because my parents, I went schoolgirling to earn my room and board. My mom did that, when they moved out here, and they would go to high school then they lived with a Caucasian family. That's how she learned to make turkey and things like that. So of course, when I'm starting UCLA she wants me to schoolgirl.

SY: I see.

NG: And it was a lot of reasons. Well, money, I'm sure, was one, but she also felt it was character building. [Laughs] And so I did that, and I hated it. It was, 'cause you live with --

SY: You lived with --

NG: I lived with a family with two kids, and there, for my room and board they just, it was good to have me there 'cause the kids, babysit the kids, and I didn't have to do anything really, just to be there.

SY: You didn't have to cook or clean?

NG: I didn't have to cook. I washed dishes and stuff, but I really didn't have any big things. My mom, when she put the ad in the paper -- I was sick that weekend -- I mean, the phone rang off the hook.

SY: Wow.

NG: 'Cause this, people want schoolgirls, or boys, whatever.

SY: And they, these were all Caucasian families?

NG: All Caucasian out there in that area, UCLA area.

SY: In the Westwood, West L.A.

NG: Westwood area. And then, so my mom and my aunt and me, we went to go interview, and we interviewed them because my mom wanted me to have a place where I did nothing. So she, I mean, some people wanted, had me, wanted to put a, once in a while that I would, they would have these parties and they had a little uniform. My mom says, "We're not going there." [Laughs] So some houses would be gorgeous and whatever and I would like there, but she wouldn't, "No, it's too much work. You're not gonna go there." So she settled on this family 'cause all, they just needed, she had young kids and she already had her housecleaner, she already had her gardener, she already had her maid, or her, when they -- they went on a lot of trips -- she already had someone that comes in and babysits those long, where you really babysit, where you feed them and stuff. She just wants somebody in the house, so that's, we did that. But it's hard to live with a, they say you're part of the family. You're not part of the family. I mean, you're just not, even though they could be the nicest people. So I met my good friend; she lived up the block. She was doing the same thing. She was from Watsonville -- I mean she was from Victorville, and she lived with a family with just one daughter. And so we, we'd commiserate how, what a rotten way this was. [Laughs]

SY: Was that common then, being a schoolgirl, for Japanese Americans?

NG: I think for people like us, from the sticks. You know, she's from Victorville, I'm from... because all those other Japanese kids, they did not schoolgirl. They lived at Hershey Hall and they, they had apartments. [Laughs]

SY: And you did this for, how many years?

NG: Two years.

SY: Two years same family?

NG: Two, yeah, two years and then I said I don't want to do it, so they bought me a car and I commuted.

SY: So how, how did you get along with this family? I mean, were you just in and out, you didn't talk to them?

NG: No, no, no. They were very nice. We had dinner together. No, no. We were, they were very nice.

SY: And do you stay in touch with them after you left?

NG: No, I did not. I did shortly, but my gosh, I've, why didn't I? I would like to. They've always had, I must've been their tenth one 'cause -- and they were not Japanese, so other people did the same thing, but they, I think I was their first Japanese American one.

SY: Wow.

NG: But students do that, who don't have means and...

SY: Right. It's interesting that your mother came up with that idea because she did it.

NG: She did it, right. Well, character building, I think, was number one. Appreciating home. [Laughs]

<End Segment 23> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.