Densho Digital Archive - Sachiye Okamoto - Miho Shiroishi Interview (denshovh-osachiye

<Begin Segment 25>

KL: Were you married in 1961?

SO: I was married in 1957, and we had the same problems about trying to rent a place. You'd see an ad in the paper and it's a vacancy, and when you show up, it's, "Oh, it's already been..."

KL: An hour ago, right?

SO: Yeah. But the thing I disliked the most was Pearl Harbor Day, especially in junior high. I'd just... I wouldn't go to school on that day because the teachers would always say, "Do you know what day today is?" And they'd all turn around and look at me. And that was just too humiliating, so I started to cut classes; I just wouldn't go.

KL: Did you go to Washington junior high, too?

SO: Uh-huh, and Poly High School in Long Beach. After a while I told them... the question that the kids would ask you most, "What country are you from?" I'd say, "United States." "No, what country? What country?" I'd go, "United States. I'm an American." "No, what..." you know, they keep saying, "What country?"

MS: They cannot comprehend. I used to get asked how long I've been here, you know.

SO: "You speak rather good English."

MS: "Where? Here, at this store?" or what.

SO: Yeah, that was kind of funny.

MS: "What do you mean how long have I been here?" They're assuming I'm from Japan or wherever. It doesn't occur to them.

SO: Even adults, huh?

MS: So it's the same kind of the thing with executive order, to put all these Americans in camps, just because we look like the enemy doesn't mean that I have to be... I've never been to Japan. Not even for a visit. But you try to explain that I was born here, but they just don't get it, because your face doesn't match...

KL: Theirs.

MS: Yeah.

SO: Right, right.

KL: It sounds like frustrating conversations.

SO: Oh, yeah. I said, "Whatever, I'm an Indian." That's what I used to say in high school.

KL: Did you really?

SO: Yes, "I'm an Indian."

KL: How did people respond to that?

SO: "Oh, really? What tribe?" "I don't know, some Indian tribe. Whatever. Whatever I look like." Or, "I'm an Eskimo." Anything but a Japanese.

MS: I went out to dinner with co-workers and somebody brought (up), brought up this going to camp (thing). I never bring up a subject like that because I didn't want to talk about it. This was a long time ago. And then one of the girls said, "Well, they had to do it." Well, that caught me cold. I said, "Why? Why did they have to put me behind bars when I don't even know Japan? I've never even been there." But I noticed that -- and this was a good friend that said that -- and I noticed that some people are just ignorant. And she (did) not, no matter how much I explained to her, she could not get it.

KL: So her thinking didn't change.

SO: Right.

MS: Yeah. She just could not understand that. She just, you know, "They had to do it. They had to put you there."

KL: Was she a Californian, too?

MS: Yeah. And I said, "Well, it's like putting you behind bars." I said, "I didn't do anything, I was born here." But they cannot understand that. And I could not understand, I just sat there and bawled because I was so frustrated, that after explaining, that she could not understand that. So a lot of people still thinks like that. So whatever you guys are doing is such a great thing, it is, to educate the public. So it's very good.

KL: We can try.

MS: Yeah, that's good.

KL: Who is your husband? I wanted to ask about your families and if you guys had careers or other things that were important in your adult life. What is your husband's name?

SO: Robert. And he, I believe they lived in L.A. and so they were sent to the Santa Anita racetrack, and he ended up at Heart Mountain. But the whole family, his dad and everyone went to Heart Mountain, and they were only in camp for two years because his mother had a brother in Detroit. So they were able to leave camp and go to Detroit.

MS: To their home.

SO: To his uncle's place. And so I think a lot of people who were able to leave Manzanar, too, also, if they had like a sponsor, I would say, right? Or somewhere to go to, other. I think some of my friends that were in California during the war like in Long Beach, they were farmers, so they were able to pack up their truck and move to Utah, which was fine. If you had, I think it was just the fishermen mostly, or the people on the... fishermen especially, because of their shortwave radios.