Densho Digital Archive - Sachi Kaneshiro Interview (denshovh-ksachi-01-0017)

<Begin Segment 17>

RP: Dorothy shared with us some of the things that, some of the sights and the wonder of New York that she discovered. How about you, Sachi? What did you find stimulating about the Big Apple?

SK: Oh, oh yeah. Everything, yeah. But I especially liked the Broadway plays and missed that, missed that most when I left New York. Although we've gone to plays here too, but it (wasn't the same)... there's just such an excitement about, about New York. Oh, when, what else did we do?

Off Camera: You went with us a couple times to see Perry Como.

SK: Did I? But we used to go to the movies. We saw all the good big bands, Benny Goodman, Harry James, Tommy Dorsey, and all of 'em. We did a lot of going out in those days. And then when the soldiers came into town. My sister was married to, to one of the 100th men. He would refer people, he would refer his buddies to us. We'd go out, we'd go out as a group or...

RP: You had your own personal USO?

SK: Well, yeah, that's what they called us. Yeah. And our, our apartment happened to be on the street level so in the summertime the windows were all open. People would walk by and they must have thought it was a USO 'cause all of these khaki uniforms there. (...) We and our friends, girlfriends, would entertain them. At least they got something to drink and something to eat.

RP: And they, were they on furloughs?

SK Furlough, uh-huh.

RP: Did you meet your husband in New York?

SK: No. No. I went to Hawaii when my, my sister had her first child, to help her out. And I helped myself. [Laughs] And I met him, yeah.

RP: And he also...

SK: He was not...

RP: He was not in camp.

SK: In service. No he was not in camp.

RP: So what was his reaction when you... did you share a story or two about camp with him, or fill him in about it?

SK: I don't think I did. We talked very little about camp all those years we were silent about it. And I don't think I told him very much.

Off Camera: They hardly knew about camp.

SK: Yeah. And people in Hawaii, they didn't experience it, so they might have been interested but we never talked about it. It's just recently that they've become interested in camps because they found one on Oahu. Did you hear about that one, Honouliuli? And I just read in the paper that Senator Inouye has requested appropriations to make that into a regular tourist place. There were only about two hundred and fifty people there. So it's a little different, but...