<Begin Segment 7>

KL: Did your principal... sometimes I've heard people say that their principals gave kind of a speech about, either about the U.S. and Japan going to war or saying to the teachers and the principal... they didn't say anything?

SS: No, I don't remember anything. But I think shortly after that, the Executive Order 9066...

KL: How did you hear about that, do you remember?

SS: I don't remember how we heard it, but word gets around very quickly. And then we looked around the house and said anything Japanese, there's an area in front of our house, we'd throw everything out. Japanese records that had nothing to do with the war or anything, we just threw everything out. Getting rid of everything Japanese.

KL: How was that for your family? How was that for your family?

SS: We scurried around, looked for anything that had Japanese on it. We had some old prints, we threw those out.

KL: Was that hard for your folks?

SS: Yes, for my mother. I think it's hard for anybody. Of course, we didn't have that much, but what little we had, we just got rid of it.

KL: And you said people were talking together about the executive order?

SS: Well, at that time I didn't know about the executive order. All I knew was we had to, we had to pack whatever you can carry, maybe two suitcases, and go to a certain corner. I can't remember which corner it was, but I remember a group was gathered there. And they said a bus will come by to bring you to the assembly center, which for us was the Puyallup Fairgrounds.

KL: Did it catch you off... were you surprised that you were being forced out of your home, out of your hotel?

SS: It was a shock to us, yes. We didn't know where we were going. I didn't know where Puyallup was.

KL: Oh, you hadn't been to the fairgrounds before?

SS: No.

KL: But you said a bus picked you up at a corner?

SS: Huh?

KL: You said a bus came to the corner to pick you up?

SS: They told us to gather at some corner, I don't remember exactly which corner, but with what you can carry with you.

KL: What did you take?

SS: Clothes. I mean, what can you carry except clothes? I don't remember, but I liked to draw, so maybe I took some things with me, I don't recall. Because I have something, the drawings and painting that I did in camp.

KL: Had you heard rumors about Puyallup or about where you would be going?

SS: No.

KL: Did you have a guess about what it would be like?

SS: No idea. Nobody had any idea. We were fortunate that when we got to camp, we were housed in the parking lot area where they built these barracks. Because the other people had to go to the fairgrounds where they kept the animals. They built barracks on the fairground where the animals were kept, so they had a miserable time.

KL: But you were kind of outside of that?

SS: Yes. The fairground is here, and we were out near the parking areas here, so that's where we were.

KL: Were you with neighbors?

SS: Yes. Not neighbors we knew.

KL: They were new to you?

SS: Yeah. But this long barrack about maybe five, five rooms. There were six of us in one room.

KL: What was with you in the room?

SS: My two sisters, my two brothers and I, and my mother, in one room smaller than this room here. And I think there were five families in this one barrack. And the partition didn't go all the way up. The roof was like this, the partition came to about here.

KL: Where was your father?

SS: My father died before. Fortunately, he died. I mean, that's not a good thing to say, but if he had been living, he would have been picked up and sent to Montana or someplace, picked up by the FBI.

KL: Do you think your parents intended to stay in the United States? Were they pretty, did they feel very much a part of Seattle and of the United States?

SS: Yeah. It was pretty hard for my mother.

KL: When did your, how old were you when your father died?

SS: It was sad, but I don't remember.

KL: Were you in high school?

SS: I think I was still in high school, yeah.

KL: So that wasn't that long before you were, had to leave the hotel.

SS: Well, he had another business, too.

KL: What was that?

SS: I want to say dry cleaning, but at that time, the people were wearing hats, they brought hats and maybe dry cleaning too, I can't remember exactly what it was, but it was on Jackson Street, that I remember.

KL: Is that close to the hotel?

SS: No.

KL: But he had the car?

SS: He had a car.

KL: You had to dispose of the car?

SS: At that time we didn't have a car, no. Sorry.

KL: That's okay.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2012 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.