<Begin Segment 27>

KL: When did you leave the hostel, and how did you find housing, your family?

IT: I don't remember, but we left as fast as we could, because, well, I guess they encouraged it, too. And then being the last family out, we're probably holding them back from closing up. I don't know.

KL: So it was like a couple of weeks, or was it longer?

IT: You know, I don't remember. But I know my mom just tried everywhere to get a job. And she got one. I mean, jobs were there, but she had to work at places where, like the first job she had was with a, stuffing toys, it was factory-like stuff. She's allergic to that [inaudible] thing that they stuff it with. But she took it because she needed a job. And then she went to the hospital, she was a maid, then found out that they do have a barber coming in to cut the patients' hair, so she tried for that and got that job. Then somehow she got this little place in Chinatown. It was just a little, little room kind of in the lobby, and so she set up shop there. But everything was by bus.

KL: You said people in Chinatown treated her okay?

IT: Yeah.

KL: There wasn't a problem?

IT: It was, it kind of scared me because they had gambling and all that kind of stuff down there. But they liked the way she cut hair, and I think they were the Filipinos that, they called her Mary, and I figure it's because they're, most of them are Catholics, but I don't know, I'm just guessing. But they would sit around and just keep her company or kind of in a protective way. And she tells me, and they'd bring her cakes and stuff like that. Then she had a friend that came home with her, brought her home by bus and she got home like 10 pm. So my sister was already, she was younger than I was, so she was already sleeping, so she rarely saw her mother. So I felt like I was a mother and a sister to my sister, 'cause I really kind of looked after her.

KL: Did your father stay home, then, pretty much, during the day?

IT: Yeah, he had to cook, and then because we had no money he had to cook, he made things like wieners and always rice, and he made, or hamburgers 'cause you could buy it for a dollar for the family, for the day. This really makes me laugh, but he made potato salad and his potato salad was, he boils the potatoes, peels it, cuts them up, or slices them, and mixes it with mayonnaise. And that was what we were supposed to eat with the rice. So all of us [holds arms out to indicate gaining weight, laughs]. But we didn't know anything about nutrition. And then my mom had, was supposed to stay off of salt, so she got some kind of liquid salt, I remember. She was supposed to eat meat. Well, we couldn't afford the good steaks, so she got pork steaks, and she ate that. But it probably had something to do with the kidneys or blood pressure or something. I don't know. But he didn't like staying home, tried to work, but he always ended up sick. So we couldn't afford the doctor, so we told him not to work anymore.

KL: What about your brother? You were talking off camera a little bit about how his and your and your family's lives were kind of intertwined. When you were about eighteen, with military service and supporting, financial support.

IT: When I turned eighteen, ready to graduate from high school, they were going to, they were going to draft him because the draft was still working, and send him to Germany. I don't know why they already had Germany planned, but it seems like we knew that. And then my uncle who was in the 442, he went to the draft board and said, "Please don't take him. He's the breadwinner." And of course, being a woman, I wouldn't get a good job anyway. But I had a chance to go to college 'cause I had a couple scholarships and I couldn't go otherwise, because we don't have any money. "So let him stay until she graduates." So they made it clear that I have to start bringing in the bacon when I graduate, and I wanted to be a teacher, so that's what they said. And they said I also have to send in my grades every time, to make sure that I'm gonna graduate, I guess. So right after I graduated they took him for two years and sent him to Germany. And I desperately was looking for a cheap housing for, and there were rats and things. Oh my goodness. But I taught with this teacher who just, they just built a home next door and their old home was, she said, "I'll rent it to you." And she said she'll give me the price, the low price that I'm looking for. And that was up in, no, I can't remember the name of it. Baker or something. It's a good area, residential area. So my sister, my dad and I moved in there. But I had no money, so my girlfriend would say, "You should put drapes up." I said, "I don't have money to buy drapes." It was, people just don't understand when we don't have money, even friends, they would, Japanese friends, you would think that they would. But then one gal even said to me, "You should take your dad places." I couldn't afford to give him, I mean I gave him some money from my check, we would separate everything and give him some money for the month. But I'd have no money for myself. And so every last week of the month we would eat pancakes for dinner because we had no money. But we survived. Then after my sister, she was in the same field in college, two years later she graduated, so we both saved like a hundred dollars each, 'cause we're used to scrimping. We know how to do that. And after a year we sent my dad back to Japan for a visit. And poor guy, he wanted to bring back a wife, but I couldn't get him under insurance, medical insurance. And I said, what if she gets sick? So I felt sorry for him, but, 'cause he's lonesome. He, they said he lived longer as a single man, without a wife, than with my mom.

<End Segment 27> - Copyright © 2014 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.