Densho Digital Archive - Toshiko Sakata Interview (denshovh-stoshiko-01-0008)

<Begin Segment 8>

DG: So you went to Marysville. How did you get there?

TS: The bus took us. We had to go to Florin to catch the bus, and then from Florin to Marysville Assembly Center. And we stayed there exactly one month, and then we went to Tule Lake and stayed there until the end. My father said, "It's the same thing, next, all the other camps, they're all the same thing. We don't have to move." So that's why we just stayed there, four years.

DG: So it sounded like other Clarksburg people went directly from here to Tule Lake.

TS: Yeah.

DG: Not, not Marysville first.

TS: Not everybody, and then some people went to, well, to Gila River Assembly Center, or concentration camp. They were all...

JS: Split up.

TS: Some went to Colorado, Amache. And so they were kind of split up all over.

JS: Did your family stay together? Like, you said you had cousins, did they all go to Tule Lake?

TS: Yeah, we all went to Tule Lake. And after we stayed there for a while, my cousins decided to go to, well, the boys were taken to the service, and then they went to Utah, I think, Topaz. Yeah, and we just stayed there.

DG: So when it became a segregated camp, your cousins' family went to Topaz.

TS: Topaz, yeah.

DG: I see. But your father decided to stay.

TS: Yeah, he said it's the same thing, so just stayed there.

JS: What was high school like in camp?

TS: Just like any other American school. They had grammar school, high school.

JS: Do you remember any of the teachers?

TS: I can't remember those teachers. I have a yearbook that they had.

DG: You still have the yearbook?

TS: Yeah. It's at home.

DG: And what jobs did your parents have at camp?

TS: My father went into farming. They had farms, so... and then my mother went in, waitress in the mess halls.

JS: Do you know what they grew out at Tule Lake? The crops?

TS: They had all the, it would snow and freeze, so it had to be, like turnips or carrots or, all the...

DG: Root vegetables.

TS: Yeah, yeah, root vegetable. It can't be on top, that grew, can't have tomatoes or... it's too cold.

JS: So do you remember that, when Tule Lake became a segregated camp and how things changed at the camp? Did that affect you?

TS: No, it didn't affect... we just stayed there. There was new one coming in, the one that stayed with us went out, new people coming in.

JS: What year did you graduate high school, then? It was in camp, right?

TS: Yeah, in camp. Gosh, I don't remember now. Four years over there, so... It was a big class. I mean, every class there, big class.

DG: Were you on any teams or...

TS: No, I didn't play.

DG: Did you sing, or any of those kind of --

TS: No. We used to go to Sunday school all the time, every Sunday we went.

DG: To the Christian or the Buddhist?

TS: Buddhist.

JS: So that was new for your family, 'cause when you were living out in the country, you didn't go to church.

TS: No, we didn't have no transportation, my father had to work, so couldn't afford it. Lot of 'em didn't get to go to church. But in camp you got a lot of time, so Mom started going to church on Sunday. And then later there was ministers from Hawaii that came too, quite a few of 'em, Buddhist ministers came to Tule Lake.

DG: Do you remember dances? Were there dances?

TS: You mean American dances?

DG: For teenagers, yeah.

TS: Yeah, they had all those things. They had dances and they had games, baseball. And they had a big gymnasium, so I think they had basketball too. Yeah, they'd play each other.

JS: When did you meet your husband? Did you meet him in camp?

TS: No, he was in the service.

JS: He was in the service. So it was after.

TS: Yeah.

DG: What camp was his family at?

TS: His family was in Tule Lake too. Yeah. She, my mother-in-law was kind of bitter because she had two sons that were in the service and she had to stay in camp, so, you know.

DG: And they were from Clarksburg area?

TS: They're Courtland. Yeah, Courtland area.

JS: So did you know the Sakata, your husband's family before?

TS: Yeah.

JS: A little bit.

TS: We, Courtland and Clarksburg were close, so, yeah.

DG: And they were farmers?

TS: Yeah, they're all farmers. All his, he had, they had nine kids and there's only two left now. No, three left. The rest are all gone now. Lot of 'em are gone now. I mean, they're all up in age. They're all in the eighties, so -- our age group, they're all eighties, nineties, so most of 'em are gone now. It's kind of sad, seeing them all go.