Densho Digital Archive - Mas Okabe Interview (denshovh-omas

<Begin Segment 15>

KL: I looked, and I guess you arrived in Crystal City in early 1944?

MO: April?

KL: 1944?

MO: Uh-huh.

KL: What's your recollection of that trip, of leaving Amache?

MO: I don't recall too much of our arrival there, but I was happy to see my father, you know. And this time, the place where we were assigned, not a long, big barrack, but a smaller building, which was divided, our building was divided into four parts, they called them quads. And we were given two rooms of that quad. My father and mother in one, and my brothers were in the other room. But there was a doorway connecting them. And we had markets to go to, and my mother would go shopping. And they gave us this play money made out of plastic, and she used that to buy food. We were given an allowance. She'd buy food, bring it home, and then cook.

KL: She had the play money, too, like the scrip? Or she was using cash?

MO: Yeah, they would issue that to us monthly, and we'd use that and buy food at the market, well, commissary, whatever you want to call it. And she'd come home and cook meals for us, because that's what we did, we ate together. We didn't go to mess halls, we didn't have mess halls anymore.

KL: Did you have a kitchen in your two rooms?

MO: Yeah, there was a stove.

KL: You said you were happy to see your dad?

MO: Yes.

KL: How did you greet him?

MO: Well, I wasn't, we weren't too demonstrative, you know, no hugging and stuff like that. But we were very happy to see him.

KL: How was he different?

MO: He was quiet. I guess being in a place like that, I guess your parents become more subdued. It wasn't too animated, except when they come to my schooling. If I didn't do well, he'd let me know.

KL: How did your mom feel about seeing him again?

MO: She was very happy, yeah. Kind of took this load off of her shoulder, yeah.

KL: So did her behavior change?

MO: Not too much. She was more or less a quiet person anyway. But I was glad to eat her cooking, anyway.

KL: And you said he was in Bismarck?

MO: Well, he was in Lordsburg, I don't know if he went to Bismarck. He was in Lordsburg and then he went to Santa Fe. In Lordsburg, I think he was a cook, you know, because he had the restaurant. So he was the, one of the chefs there. They had a picture of him, all the people in camp, and he was holding a frying pan like he's a chef. [Laughs]

KL: Did you kind of catch up when you first saw each other again?

MO: No, no.

KL: No? Just kind of...

MO: Yeah. Issei people don't disclose too much of their feelings. You have to pump it, "Why'd you do that?" this and that, you know, that kind of stuff. They wouldn't come out and tell you.