<Begin Segment 3>

RD: And do you remember your leaving the camp?

SU: Yes. I remember leaving, but the most I remember is getting sick on the bus. We had to take the Greyhound bus back, and I was so sick, that's all I remember about coming back.

RD: Getting carsick?

SU: Yes.

RD: And what did your mom do after?

SU: She returned to barbering, and we were able to return to the same house that we rented. So she continued on with the barbering.

RD: Well, did everybody in Penryn go away?

SU: Yes.

RD: The whole town?

SU: The whole town. Except the people we were renting from where Chinese, they owned the buildings there, so they were there.

RD: So the Chinese people stayed and the Japanese people left.

SU: Yes.

RD: And the Chinese people took care of the property for the Japanese people?

SU: No, they just had that vacant so we were able to move back in.

RD: Well, when I was in San Francisco, there was an area with mostly Japanese people but it was the Chinese people that were responsible for them getting evacuated. Because they used to have these signs that say, "You're good Chinese, a friendly Chinese person, evil Japanese person." You should see these posters, they're terrible.

Off camera: They had that one down at the L.A. Japanese American Museum that was really, it was very interracial.

RD: Yes, it's very racist.

SU: Oh.

RD: So how did you meet Chuck?

SU: Well, we're from the same community, so I knew him from childhood. But when I was going to San Jose State college, he was going to Stanford and he dated my roommate, and so...

RD: But you guys ended up in different camps.

SU: Yes, but we did go back to our own community, and Penryn and Rocklin were very close, it's right there.

Off camera: Roy was in her Latin class.

SU: Yeah, Roy Doi was my Latin class.

RD: Oh, so now he married, as I said, he married Joan. Did you know the story?

SU: No.

RD: They met at the Heart Mountain reunion, and he said to her, "You know, I had a crush on you in eighth grade math?" He said, "You still look the same." And she said, "Ooh," and they went --

SU: Really? I didn't know that.

RD: And they went to Vegas again and they said they were there at midnight, they were the first people in line to get married when the chapel opened.

SU: I didn't know that.

RD: It's good, isn't it?

SU: Yes.

RD: And she was the daughter of the Italian ambassador who had accompanied his Japanese wife to the camp even though he didn't have to. So she's half Japanese. So this is, it's our other love story.

SU: Oh, that's nice to hear.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2010 Raechel Donahue and Garrett Lindemann and Densho. All Rights Reserved.