<Begin Segment 24>

RP: Your father, did he work in camp?

AS: My dad?

RP: Did your father work in camp?

AS: Yeah, I wonder, I wonder what my father... he must've done something. He was about... 'cause he was about fifty-eight or -nine when he went to camp. I know my mother worked in a garment factory. I know because she's making these great big, what do you call it? Pea coats. She said, "Get the biggest one and I'll make it into a cape." So I did, and the army uniform, they cut it up and made into... that's what they did. But, yeah, everybody kind of enjoyed working, 'cause you can't just sit around, do nothing. Yeah, which is really... but Terminal Island people, in a lot of their... which was it? A lot of the people, their kids were going to college and all when they to camp and then a lot of the colleges offered scholarships for the kids that were in college, so they did go out, which was really nice, I know. But it was hard for them because they got... imagine when your mother has three, four kids all of a sudden husband just pulled away. 'Cause Dan knew this... I think it was a sort of relative of his. He was a doctor. He was in Terminal Island, and so, you know... at least, at least he used to go there and visit him to get his treatment or whatever it is, but otherwise they did have a real rough time. They talk about Terminal Islander, but when you're in that situation what could you... at least we were all grown ups, so we were lucky, our family.

RP: You had a child in camp, a daughter.

AS: Yeah, she was born, on the sixteenth she'll be sixty-six. Imagine that. The picture of that, I showed you that picture of Lil. Did I show you a picture of her, we're leaving camp?

RP: I think John did, yeah.

AS: That's us leaving camp. It's really...

RP: Do you remember who delivered your child?

AS: Yeah, Togasaki. You remember her?

RP: Dr. Togasaki, yes. She --

AS: She came from Johns Hopkins to help.

RP: She didn't have to come to camp.

AS: She did not have to. She was a -- but she came to help the poor, us people, so I made sure, I wanted to give her -- because they had four year med students, and so I said to my sister, "Let me know when she's on duty, then she'll be my..." 'Cause I had some complications, so it was really good, but couple of my girlfriends were nurses there but we went to school together, so it was really nice. But they really gave us all the treatment. They make sure, they stick, the doctors stuck up for us.

RP: In what ways?

AS: Well, one way is the, they were gonna take -- you know, during wartime I guess vitamins and all that was kind of hard, so they were gonna take, and those doctors took... "And these mothers are not eating right, anyway, so you can't take that away from them," so we had all vitamins and everything like we're outside camp. They stuck up for us, which is really good. I told, I said we were very fortunate. And Dr. Little, he was the head doctor. He was kind of a new doctor, but I guess he went along with these, 'cause a doctor like Togasaki, she was an old timer.

RP: What about Dr. Goto?

AS: Yeah, oh yeah, Goto family was a real, his folks were from Fukushima-ken, good friend of my... and he, he really stuck up for -- now, Dr. Goto, Jimmy Goto, he was in college with my sister Frances, so he really knew, and I heard he really, he was really good at cutting all these appendix, told my husband, "You want appendix taken out?" Dan says, "No, I don't have appendix." [Laughs] But he really stuck up for us. He really did, 'cause they wanted to take those vitamins and all that kind of stuff away and he told 'em, he stuck there, too, right there in camp and helped, really. I know -- my father, I think he had a nervous breakdown -- he came over and talked to my dad. 'Cause his father's folks were my father's real good, they're from the same place in Japan, but -- you know Jimmy Goto?

RP: Never met him, no. I know his brother, though.

AS: Oh, you do?

RP: Ray Goto.

AS: You know Ray? You know Ray. Yeah, his wife just passed away, Bernice. So sad.

<End Segment 24> - Copyright © 2009 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.