Densho Digital Archive - Jiro Sugidono Interview (denshovh-sjiro-01-0013)

<Begin Segment 13>

TI: Now, did, did having the boundary on Main Street cause, or how did that affect things like shopping? If people wanted to shop on the other side of Main Street, how would they do that?

JS: That was funny, kind of funny. 'Cause my father had his car on the west side -- I mean, east side, and then evacuation come and they'd, they were saying that you gotta go buy a... you know, you could take so much clothes and things like that, so my mother wanted to buy some suitcase and things like that. And the J.C. Penney at that time was on the west side of Main Street, so what she did was, came with a car which she parked on the west side, but she can't get out. So what we did, we went inside the J.C. Penney on the west side, and brought the clothes she wants, showing her and then she said, "Okay, that's good," and suitcase, too, we brought it out to show her and she said, "Okay, that's fine, good." And they, but they couldn't get out of the car.

TI: So this was you and your, your brother and sisters, you would show them.

JS: (Yes), that's right.

TI: And how did the people at J.C. Penney react when you came outside and showed people what you were gonna buy? They were okay with that?

JS: [Laughs] Well, I guess, I guess they knew about the restriction, I guess, I don't know. 'Cause it was kind of weird, 'cause here you were treated like an alien, you know, I mean, "enemy alien." And they can't get out, and so that's, that's how it was. And usually those times you see those big box, I don't know if your folks bought those big boxes to put the clothes in, well, we still got ours in the garage. It's empty, but, you know, heck, wood boxes and metal clipping and everything, the J.C. Penney had it. And they had curfew that came, all the aliens, and I guess they were pertaining to say the Japanese people, too, that I think it was seven or, seven o'clock or eight o'clock, somewhere around there. Had to be in the house. Heck, we were young yet, so heck, we didn't, we didn't mind that. We just, my friends like Fred Oda, those guys, we used to go up, upper Main Street, walking around, this and that.

One incident we had was, see, Fort Ord is right there by, little past this side of Monterey, that's where lot of, lot of infantrymen training. And then a lot of those guys came to Watsonville, some of those guys, they were mostly hakujin. And they came and they saw us, and they thought we were Japanese, I guess. They ask, "What are you?" I told 'em, "Oh, we're Mongolian," but they didn't do anything. So we just walked away.

TI: Oh, so these were kind of trainees from Fort Ord, or they just...

JS: Oh (yes), they were (draftee) like...

TI: Recruits.

JS: And what do you call the... not recruit, but maybe guys got drafted.

TI: So like they're in basic training, kind of?

JS: (Yes).

TI: And so they were here on furlough or something in Watsonville?

JS: Well, it could be a furlough or pass.

TI: Or pass.

JS: Usually those kind of guys, they're just looking for trouble, that's all.

TI: And so rather than hassle, you just said you were Mongolian and then they'd leave you alone.

JS: Oh, (yes). So to make a confusion, we could say we were Chinese, they probably won't know the difference anyway. [Laughs] At that time, that lower Main, they had Chinese grocery store. I don't know, you probably saw the, on the window it says, "We're Chinese Americans," see. But they were good people, though, 'cause heck, lot of those people couldn't afford to buy something, they'd give 'em credit at that time.