<Begin Segment 34>

KL: Did you go back to Poston ever?

AO: Yes. Then when the camp was closing, my mother asked me. I was all set to, for the next school year, I mean, next semester. And my mother wrote and said she really needed help to move. So I had arranged and sent my transcript to Berkeley and had been accepted to continue there. And I went back to Poston, and I was looking forward to seeing my father and expecting a glad reception. Here again I'm going to cry. I walked up to where he was sitting, and he turned to my mother and he said, "Why did you call her back?" Because it was his dream that we all get college education, and here Toshi had to interrupt her... because of the war. And I tried to tell him, "I'm just changing colleges." But the it just.. [cries]. I'm sorry.

KL: It's okay.

AO: I think that was one of my worst moments of my whole life. It's like he didn't want to see me. But, so I helped my mother and my sisters pack, and we all came back to California, and my mother and two sisters went to the Gilroy Hot Springs Hostel. And I went to San Francisco. My sister... well, I went to the hostel in San Francisco, which was the Buddhist church, and from there I got myself a schoolgirls, working with Dr. and Mrs. Moore. Dr. Moore was a proctologist in San Francisco. And so they had me come in to help prepare dinner and wash the dishes afterward, serve if necessary, little housework. But you know, it was not difficult or anything. And then my sister thought, well, by then... my sister found that I guess the government had arranged for housing for returning, and it was the kind of housing they had for the shipyard workers and things. And there was one of such or returning Japanese in El Cerrito. And so my sister arranged for my mother and my sisters to move there.

KL: Which sister was it who learned of the housing?

AO: My older sister. She worked for the Family and Children's Agency in San Francisco, and probably through them she learned of this.

KL: Did you live with the Moores when you were in San Francisco?

AO: Yes. And she was doing housework for her room and board.

KL: Toshi?

AO: Uh-huh, in another home. Hers was much more difficult. But the Moores were very caring, Dr. Moore. But when I told him that I was having problems with hemorrhoids, he took me to the hospital and took me to surgery and took care of me, and didn't charge me anything. And took care of the hospital bill. So, you know, it's like I've lived a charmed life.

KL: You have encountered some good people in important times.

AO: Yeah, they all come at the right time.

<End Segment 34> - Copyright © 2013 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.