Densho Digital Archive - Shiuko Sakai Interview (denshovh-sshiuko-01-0013)

<Begin Segment 13>

KL: So how long, when did you leave Minidoka?

SS: I think 1945, went out with four other girls, they were girls at the time. What happened was I was in the in the counselor's office, and some representative from the WRA office in New York came, and he talked to us. He sort of convinced me to go off to New York. He told them to line up a job for me as a secretary. So when I got out there I had a job. Went out there with the four other girls, took a train, it was the longest train (ride). Besides the train from Puyallup to the camp, that was the longest commercial train, I think.

KL: But a different sort of ride, I would guess.

SS: I think I was eighteen at that time, I mean, that's kind of a scary trek for somebody.

KL: You were eighteen when you left the camp?

SS: I think I was. But when I think about it, I think I have a lot of nerve, looking back. I didn't know anybody out there, but there were four other girls with me. And they lined up room and board for me. And I didn't know at the time who this person was. Do you know a Reinhold Niebuhr?

KL: Yeah.

SS: He's a very well-known theologian, and he had an apartment... do you know New York City?

KL: Much better than Seattle. I've visited several times.

SS: Do you know where Riverside Church is?

KL: Yeah.

SS: Well, Riverside Church is on Riverside Drive. And the Union Theological Seminary, the apartments for the professors at the seminary is right behind the Riverside Church. And right across the street from the apartments is the seminary, Union Theological Seminary. My little room was between the Riverside Church and the apartments of the professors. So every morning I got up to the church bells ringing. I had a very small room, but I took care of the little girl and the little boy.

KL: It was in Reinhold Niebuhr's house?

SS: Their apartment.

KL: The room?

SS: No, no. The room was between the two, the apartments and the church. There was an area there for, small rooms for maids, I guess. It's a small room, just a bed, toilets. That's where I stayed for a while. I took care of the little girl, gave her a bath, got her ready for school. In the meantime, I worked downtown, I worked as a secretary at national headquarters of the Union... not Union, Lutheran Council, National Lutheran Council. And that was situated (at) Thirty-Fourth and Madison Avenue. I think it was Madison Avenue. And the offices were located in the former JP Morgan home, but on the corner of...

KL: Wow.

SS: And by that time, I think I called my mother and my sister to New York, and then I got an apartment on Broadway and 100th... 140th Street near NYU, and not too far from Columbia University. So I took the Fifth Avenue bus and got off at Thirty-third or someplace, then going to Chock Full O'Nuts for my coffee.

KL: Ooh. Yeah, my friend's thesis production from Columbia theater school was in Riverside Church.

SS: Oh, really?

KL: Yeah, so I know that building. I went to see her show. Did you like New York?

SS: It was interesting, yeah. I liked it at first, it was nice at that time. Not like it is now. I wouldn't live there now, but at the time it was very nice.