<Begin Segment 6>

JS: So you didn't go to assembly center. You went directly to Tule.

SH: Right, right.

DG: And did you stay in Tule Lake the rest of the war?

SH: Right. I didn't want to move again, so...

DG: Did you have -- wait, you were the oldest, so you didn't have any brothers who would've served. They weren't old enough, right?

SH: At the time, yeah, but after we came back, two of my brothers went to Korea.

DG: And did your parents have jobs in camp?

SH: Uh-huh. My mother was helping in the kitchen, and my father was a police.

GH: A warden.

SH: Warden, yeah. A warden, they used to call 'em. Yeah. [Laughs]

GH: Called 'em warden, not police.

DG: And you were in high school.

SH: Uh-huh.

DG: How was the school?

SH: Well, it was alright. [Laughs]

DG: Were the teachers other internees, or did they bring teachers from outside?

SH: They were internees that must've gone to higher education or something.

JS: Did you know Mr. Cook, Di Cook?

SH: No.

JS: He was one of the teachers that Wayne remembered from Tule Lake, at the high school.

SH: I don't remember him.

DG: Did you go to dances?

SH: Yeah, once in a while. There weren't too many dances, though, while we were there.

DG: And as a young, as a teenage girl, were you very aware of the politics that were going on at Tule Lake?

SH: In the camp?

DG: Uh-huh.

SH: [Laughs] Well, I guess so, my goodness.

GH: When you say Tule Lake, doesn't that kind of hit you?

JS: Well, I just know there was a lot of --

SH: My goodness. Yeah, the tanks used to come rolling in.

GH: And you know they say --

SH: And they have, oh my gosh, a lot of riots.

GH: Those troublemakers, they were all sent to Tule Lake.

SH: Yeah, from other camps they were all sent, so nothing but the bad people are coming into Tule Lake. Here --

DG: Bad people.

SH: Yeah, we stayed because we didn't want to go to Japan or... [laughs]

JS: Do you remember the Hoshidan?

SH: Yes, oh yes. Wasshoi, wasshoi. Every morning they would run...

JS: Like the Japanese military.

SH: Uh-huh, military.

JS: They would have their exercise in the...

SH: Yeah, and then they have to --

DG: So they were the pro-Japan people?

SH: Right.

GH: These are Kibei, lot of Kibei, that were from Japan.

SH: Right.

DG: So was that frightening?

SH: Oh yeah, sure it was.

DG: So did that, I mean, I'm trying to picture what that would be like? Is it that you spent more time in the barracks?

SH: No, no, no.

DG: 'Cause you didn't feel safe?

SH: No, we didn't. We went out as usual. But then somehow, I don't know, the feeling is different when you, when you know that there are people who are there that want to go to Japan and they're all pro Japanese, and those that want to stay behind are pro American, well... but I don't know, it was different.

GH: You know a lot of Kibeis went. They're the ones that troublemaking. In our camp too, Kibeis were troublemakers. Well, naturally, they were for Japan mostly.

DG: So, and did we ask your job? Did you have a job, or were you just going to school?

SH: Oh, I had a job. I had... now, what could I say, when the people came in from other camps, I was working at housing, so I used to lead 'em to their apartments or wherever they're gonna stay. And then later on I was a secretary to a procurement department at the community activities. That's where they take care of everything. Whatever goes on in the community, they take care of it.

DG: So you'd be kind of the welcome wagon when people were coming into Tule Lake.

SH: Yeah, right, right. [Laughs]

DG: And were they usually pretty upset? I mean, was it a, were they...

SH: To come there?

DG: Yeah. How...

SH: No, I wouldn't say that. But they weren't hostile or, they were all okay. When they first came in, anyway.

DG: So you got to meet a lot of people from all over.

SH: I did.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2012 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.