Densho Digital Archive - Art Imagire Interview (denshovh-iart-01-0019)

<Begin Segment 19>

RP: So you settled... when did you settle in -- well, you went to work for Aerojet and you settled in the Sacramento area.

AI: Yeah. The main reason was that's where my wife lived. So I looked for jobs right around Sacramento and there were a government facility... McLellan Air Force Base was there, Mather, Sacramento Army Depot was there. But I opted for Aerojet and fortunately it turned out okay for me.

RP: Yeah let's... we can talk about your wife a little bit. Her name?

AI: Gloria.

RP: And what was her maiden name?

AI: Maiden name is Saika, S-A-I-K-A.

RP: And did she have a camp experience?

AI: Yes, she went to Gila. She was about six when all this happened. And she tells me what a traumatic experience it was because she had to get rid of all her toys. She could only bring one. But she tells me... of course, being her age, she said it was actually fun in camp 'cause she did, didn't have any responsibilities as a kid and...

RP: She didn't have answer the "loyalty question" or anything?

AI: Yeah, yeah, didn't have to go through all that. It was, it was rough for the parents. The parents never talked about it at all. But, she went to Gila and she had her own pet turtle that she found and they used to go hide underneath the barracks. They would dig a hole where it was cool there. And they would play cards and that sort of thing. And she said there was a family there... I don't recall what family it was, but they had smuggled a case of Spam into camp. And they used to invite her over to watch her eat the Spam because she enjoyed it so much. They enjoyed watching her enjoy the Spam. And to this day she loves Spam. I still like Spam. A lot of people go, "Yuck. I don't want the Spam." But I guess, I guess it's obtained some popularity with the Hawaiians using it, call it Spam musubi, making the rice cakes out of 'em. But she, she... that was, that was mainly her experience. She had five siblings and one of them was born in camp. Yeah.

RP: Did she, did her situation include her parents losing a farm or a business or anything like that?

AI: You know, I don't think they had a... my wife likes to brag that her father was a gambler. He was, and he was pretty big time. She said after the war they would have a card room in the back of their fountain. The fountain was kind of a front and they would have a, he would have a card, card room and he would have a fancy car every year and smoked cigars and that sort of thing. But eventually it caught up with him and he ended up losing almost everything. And the mother took care of most of the family situation. And Gloria went through college and she actually went to UC nursing school where they had a scholarship program where she could go for... it was all free, lodging, tuition, and everything. And so she was able to get her degree from the University of San Francisco. And they just recently celebrated their fiftieth anniversary. And it so happened to coincide with the hundredth anniversary of the school and they had a big get-together and that sort of thing. But she never used her skills as you would expect as a, as a nurse. She did a little bit of that but then her final career was she was, worked for an insurance company as a, well, I call 'em, a glorified adjuster where they would, where they would negotiate the, the lawsuits that were against the... they had, what do they call it? The insurance, liability insurance. So they, they covered that. That's about all I know about her experience. She's probably all gonna come back and say, "Oh, Art, you said that all wrong."