Densho Digital Archive
Manzanar National Historic Site Collection
Title: Eiko Yamaichi Interview
Narrator: Eiko Yamaichi
Interviewers: Larisa Proulx, Kristen Luetkemeier
Location: San Jose, California
Date: July 15, 2015
Densho ID: denshovh-yeiko-01-0018

<Begin Segment 18>

LP: What do you recall about visiting Jerome?

EY: My auntie, visiting my auntie?

LP: Yes.

EY: Well, I was glad to see her and she was glad to see me. I hadn't seen her for quite a number of years, and so we tried to catch up on a few things. But she had three boys and the one girl. In fact, the girl was my flower girls when I got married. Now she's gone.

LP: Were there any real different things? Because I'm thinking it's kind of swampy, muggy...

EY: Yeah, it's the same as Jerome, humid, hot, swampy, very humid.

LP: In terms of just the layout, did everything seem very similar to Tule Lake?

EY: No, more like Jerome. Jerome and Rohwer were about the same.

LP: What was, when you were visiting her, what did you talk about? What was it like to see her?

EY: Yeah, I was trying to catch up on what was happening with the family, because the kids have grown, and they're about... in fact, the oldest is about my age now, so not quite, they're a couple years younger than me. It was just a one-day visit, I turned around and came home.

LP: Were you particularly close with her and that's what caused you to want to visit her?

EY: Yeah. Because she was the first one who told me about menstruation, my mother never told me. Had it not for her, I would have been scared and said, "Something's going on with me," I didn't know. My auntie explained to me, she said, "No, that's a natural thing for a girl to go through," so I said okay. She provided me the supplies that I needed, so that was okay. She meant a lot to me, because my mother never said anything.

LP: And this is your dad's sister or your mom's?

EY: No, it'd be my father's sister-in-law.

LP: Oh, okay, that's right.

EY: Because his brother's wife.

LP: And what was her demeanor? Was she very, it sounds like she was pretty nurturing.

EY: Yes, she was. She was a very caring person, very caring. Even if she suffered, she had a real hard, harsh childhood. She too had to take care of her parents, go out there and do her farmwork, and expected to do a lot of things that a grown adult would have had to do, but because she was the oldest daughter, her father made her do all these things. But by having done that, just like me, having done what I did while I was young, even as I got married and much older, it doesn't bother me to do these things. In fact, we have a lot of functions, and I'm surprised that some of these ladies, they don't like to wash the dirty pans or dishes, they don't want to get their hands dirty. It doesn't bother me. And I go out there and clean the tables with all the debris, it doesn't bother me. But a lot of the ladies, they just shy away. And there are certain ones I know, that's the way they are, so it's okay. I'll just go in there and do it. So what? Everything turns out clean later on anyway. Yeah, I've got to put with some garbage, but it's okay. Just like my auntie, said, hey, take (it) in stride, that's all part of life.

LP: And throughout your life you remained close with her in that way?

EY: Uh-huh. Because I kind of associate what I was going through and I did go through with what she went through, she had a much harsher life than I did, but both of us survived. So we have this commonness that we understand each other. So when I could, Jimi and I would drive up to a home that she was staying, and the unfortunate part of it was the home she stayed in didn't have too much activity, so all she did was sit and look outside, that's all she did. Didn't even interact with the other patients, why I don't know, but that's how she spent her life and I said, "I'm not gonna be like that."

LP: So you went back on the same day that you went to go see her, or did you spend the night there and then go back?

EY: No, I went back the same day. I did not stay there. I knew there was no bed for me, you know, being in the barrack like that, there was no spare room.

LP: How long did it take to get over there? That's quite a trip for a day.

EY: A few hours, I think. I think Jerome to the bus station wasn't too very long, and then from there to Rohwer, I don't know, might have been a half hour ride, something like that. It wasn't too far, so that I was able to spend the majority of the day there and then turn around and come home.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2015 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.