<Begin Segment 20>

AR: Okay. Even as we have a conversation about how this might have looked like paradise to younger children, it's important to note, right, that even the camp administrators pointed out that many of the Issei parents were despondent, and especially the women. And there was even in the reports, thoughts of suicide that were expressed, right? So, harder on the adults, right?

RE: Absolutely, it was difficult. As kids we didn't realize how much of a psychological impact this kind of confinement here meant because, you know, every day, what was there for them to focus on that would be of any interest? Us kids were always discovering nature, finding the creatures around, but I guess it was very depressing for them, and also to be uprooted from their day-to-day routine. This was just too overwhelming for them I'm sure.

AR: And the fathers, your father and the other men consistently applying to get their jobs back and writing letters.

RE: Right, and trying to keep busy doing things that they were asked to do by the administrators here. I don't know, you know? It's tough. It was tough.

AR: That's right. Do you have any thoughts about the Forest Service's use of this camp site? Good, bad? And to take that a little further, would you like to see some kind of historic marker placed here to commemorate that moment in time when it became a Japanese confinement camp?

RE: I think it would be nice to have some historical markers. After all, all these people who camp or frequent through here on visits would never understand what this was about. I think it should also go back to the days that it was a Girl Scout camp or... lived here by the CCC boys who reforested the area. But most importantly that, in America, some families were detained here during World War II.

AR: I think that's a good idea, to cover the range of the history.

RE: I think... at least a marker, but hopefully that this area will be preserved in some nice state.

AR: Yeah, well, probably a conscious decision to leave that chimney there, so that's something, I guess.

RE: That's great. That and the slab of concrete are the only things that remind us about the locale of where we were quartered. It's the only reminder that we were here.

AR: Do you have any final reflections about this place before we...

RE: Well, as I look towards the mountains, the beauty of the mountain never changes. It's just nostalgic. For me, it's the most beautiful thing there is, and it'll be forever etched in my mind, the beauty of the mountains in the background.

[Interruption]

RE: This open area is where my father had his vegetable garden. It wasn't very big, but enough vegetables were grown to feed all of us here. Grew giant cabbages.

AR: Did he get help from the other people in the camp to work on his garden?

RE: I don't recall. I'm sure Mr. Kimura and others might have volunteered, but my dad was very particular how his garden was treated. So he cultivated quite a bit himself. But this area was just full of rocks and stones, and my father maintained clearing that every day.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright © 2008 New Mexico JACL and Densho. All Rights Reserved.