Densho Digital Archive - Shiuko Sakai Interview (denshovh-sshiuko-01-0014)

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KL: And you said you brought your mother and Haruko?

SS: Brought my mother and my sister. I didn't bring them, I told them to come out.

KL: Did you set, were they able to come because you had housing, or what arrangements did you have to...

SS: No. When they first came, there was a hotel, they called it a hostel, where people from camp could come out and stay until they found permanent housing.

KL: Who ran that?

SS: I don't know. I think the WRA probably. I don't know. Maybe the church, I don't know. I didn't ask. But the church was very active in helping the evacuees. In fact, there's something about Reinhold Niebuhr in here, and about a group of people, the Christians, you know, they supported the war, but they were against evacuation, I thought that might be interesting to you.

KL: Yeah. I would love to take pictures of the things that you brought before you leave. And if you care to copy or scan any of these and send them to us, that would be great, too, to have at Manzanar. It was Niebuhr's daughter that you were caring for, right, when you were working there?

SS: The little girl, and there was a little boy, too.

KL: Do you remember interacting with their parents? Did their parents speak with you about your experiences?

SS: Oh, yes, they'd tell me what to do.

KL: What did they give you as their reasons for being opposed to evacuation?

SS: I don't know. I mean, I didn't talk to them about it. At that time we weren't... but she was very nice. She was asking me, she gave me, I think she gave me... because I have a little note, I can't find it now, but she said, "Is this enough?" She gave me some money, too, I think, in addition to room and board.

KL: Was your mother and your sister the last of your family to leave Minidoka?

SS: Uh-huh.

KL: How did your older sister and your other brother leave?

SS: Oh, my older sister would, got out of camp. (She) married, and she lived in Denver.

KL: Oh, did she go straight to Denver from Seattle?

SS: No. (...)

KL: Oh.

SS: She (went to Iowa from camp).

KL: Oh, what took her to Iowa?

SS: Because we had friends there. And the man she married was going to school there.

KL: Was he Japanese American also?

SS: Yes, he was from Hawaii. So they went down to Denver after he graduated, and then the war came along. They had a little baby. So she came up, she came (back) into camp for a few months with the baby, and I don't know where he was, he came up later, I think. But during the war... this was during the war, and they got shipped back to Hawaii.

KL: She and her family?

SS: Yes. But my sister and (baby) were in the camp for about four months.

KL: Before they went to Hawaii?

SS: Uh-huh.

KL: And then from the camp they went to Hawaii?

SS: Uh-huh.

KL: I see. And you said her husband was in the camp with you for a short time, too?

SS: I don't remember him being in the camp, though, I don't know. Maybe he was still in Denver and he made the arrangements so they can go back to Hawaii. I'm not sure. That's kind of different.

KL: Yeah. Well, there weren't very many Japanese American people in Iowa in the 1930s either, or '40. Were they attached to a university in Iowa?

SS: Who, my sister?

KL: Your sister and your brother-in-law.

SS: No, they weren't married at the time, but he was a student there.

KL: Do you remember the school he went to?

SS: Iowa, University of Iowa. See, my girlfriend was there going to... what's the other school? Des Moines, Iowa?

KL: Drake?

SS: Drake. So my sister knew them, so she went out there.

KL: And then to Denver and then to Minidoka and back to Hawaii?

SS: Uh-huh.

KL: And then how did your brother leave Minidoka, your second brother?

SS: I think the was drafted, so he went to Europe.

KL: Did he, did the two brothers, were they close to each other in Europe? Did they see each other?

SS: I think my brother was, the older brother was in Italy, and the other one was in France. I don't know if they ever got together.

KL: Did your family write letters to each other, were you able to stay in touch?

SS: I don't remember writing to them, but they wrote back. They were all censored. I still have 'em. [Laughs] You can't say much, they didn't say much.

KL: We have my grandfather's from that time, and he would sometimes write things like, "Hello, Censor." [Laughs] What did your mother and your sister think of New York when they got there?

SS: Oh, my mother loved it.

KL: What did she love about it?

SS: I don't know, she loved, she liked living in New York. Not that we did many things. We'd take her downtown or we'd go to beaches, take trips down to Washington, D.C., and all of that. But I didn't live in New York that long.

KL: When did you leave?

SS: It was 1947? My girlfriend from (Iowa) was going to, she was coming, she graduated, so she was coming to, going to Washington, D.C., to get a job. So I said, "Oh, I'll go with you," to get a job with the occupation forces in Japan. So I worked for the Department of the Army. And this was December of '47, it was right after the war. So I worked for the intelligence. I didn't do any of the intelligence work, but I was a secretary in the Department of the Army. And so we got to travel around, so I was able to visit relatives in Hiroshima. This is right after the war, the bomb. It was really a terrible sight to see. And I had a friend --

KL: Do you remember getting the news of the atomic bombs being deployed?

SS: I just don't remember that. Maybe I don't want to think that, I just don't remember. But I had my friends, a mother with three girls and a boy, a teenager, I think he was going to high school. They were living right outside of Hiroshima, and I think because of the war, the young students had to go into town, Hiroshima, to work in some, I don't know if it's a factory or what they had. And when the bomb hit, he was killed. And the mother, I don't think trains were running, and she told me that she got her wagon and went into Hiroshima where all the students were, and she picked up her, the boy's body and brought it home. Yeah, that's sad to hear. But eventually their family came back to, went back to Seattle, Washington.

KL: Your friends' family?

SS: My friends' family.

KL: Whose son was killed.

SS: But they were all U.S. citizens. I don't know why they were all stuck over there.

KL: Yeah, sometimes people chose to go back before the war, sometimes they went during...

SS: And then they're stuck there and they can't get back.