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

<Begin Segment 5>

KL: What was your house in Terminal Island like?

SO: It was a nice house. I think we were kind of well-off, because I remember a telephone and no one else had a telephone. I would push the chair up to the phone and I would dial the operator, and I'd say, "What time is it?" Because there was no one else to call. So I think we were pretty well-off.

KL: Did you get nice responses from the operator?

SO: No, she'd tell me the time. I was so happy.

MS: And we had a piano.

SO: She played the piano and took dance lessons and all that.

KL: What kind of dance?

SO: Japanese dance, odori. Odori?

MS: What?

SO: You did Japanese dance, right?

MS: Yeah, I did.

SO: You did.

KL: Where were your lessons?

MS: I don't recall. I remember dancing in Manzanar, too, because I have a picture on stage there.

SO: You didn't bring it.

KL: We're gonna be in touch. Did you perform in Terminal Island?

MS: No. I wasn't that kind of dancer, not at all.

KL: There were no odori performances?

SO: Wait a minute. I remember going to some talent shows and sitting there watching the kids dancing, you know Diane Endo?

MS: Uh-huh.

SO: Remember she was like the Shirley Temple and she did tap dance and all that? Anyhow, I thought we went to some shows, I remember.

KL: Where were they? Was there a community hall or church building?

MS: There was one Baptist church at Terminal Island that seems like we went there a lot.

SO: We belonged to the Baptist church.

MS: But aside from that, I don't recall any auditoriums or things like that. I really have fond memories of Terminal Island.

KL: What was the name of your church?

MS: It was... was it just Baptist church? I know it was a Baptist church.

SO: I don't recall.

MS: So if you wanted to go to church, I guess that's the place to go. There was just one. I don't know if there were other religions like Buddhist. I don't know that.

SO: But our mother was a Baptist, and our father was a Buddhist, and so that's why we went to the Baptist church. And in Manzanar I remember going to... I had to cross the firebreaks to go to church every Sunday, and we had to learn a verse and do our little workbooks every Sunday. I'd faithfully go to church.

MS: I do remember that.

KL: Did your whole family go?

SO: No, I remember walking by myself, and freezing. I had to cross the firebreaks. And while I was there at your center, the way... we lived in Block 8, and I'm saying... no, it wasn't in Manzanar, it was at the Los Angeles Japanese museum. The host there showed me, he goes, "If you went to church," he showed me where the church was and where we lived, and I had to cross the firebreaks to go to church. But I don't remember anyone else going with me. [Laughs]

MS: I don't remember going to church in Manzanar.

SO: You don't?

MS: But crossing, talking about the firebreaks, that was brutal in the summertime. I got --

SO: And the winter, too.

MS: -- athlete's feet so bad that I had, on the bottom of my foot, there was like this black and blue kind of thing sticking out. Oh, it was terrible. It just burned through our tennis shoes.

KL: When you were going to church in Terminal Island, did you go for, were you part of a youth group or anything?

MS: I don't remember that.

SO: I don't think so. I was five, so I just used to go to Sunday school.

MS: Five?

SO: We just used to go to Sunday school.

KL: You said your house had a telephone and a piano. Did you share, did you sisters share a room?

MS: Seems like it was a good-sized house, right? Maybe three bedrooms.

SO: I think it had an upstairs because I remember looking out the window and waiting for our parents to come home or something. I do remember being way up there someplace looking down.

MS: Maybe it was an attic.

SO: Maybe that's it.

MS: I don't think we had rooms upstairs.

SO: Okay, it was an attic with a window. [Laughs] And I'd spend a lot of time up there just watching. I do remember that.

KL: Do you remember the yard at all, or did you have a garden?

SO: I don't know.

MS: I just remember I had one toy, and it was a large wagon with the wooden slats on the sides. And to this day I love wagons. In fact, I went and, not too long ago, bought a little red wagon I saw at Walgreens. But that's about the only thing I remember.

KL: Did you pull Sachi around in it?

MS: Pardon me?

KL: Did you pull Sachi around in it?

MS: Oh, I'm sure I did.

SO: I don't recall.

MS: Lot of kids to pull around.

KL: Yeah, you'd be popular.

SO: Yeah.

KL: Did you all play together a lot, you and your siblings?

SO: I don't think so.

MS: I don't remember that. It just seems like you just try to fill out a lot of the things, maybe because... you know, in Manzanar, when we were there, I know I didn't think about things like what happened at Terminal Island. And with all your friends around, we just never stood around and talked like you might when you're young.