<Begin Segment 33>

RP: This is tape three of a continuing interview with Ann Sugimoto, and Ann, you, you left camp finally, you're husband came back and on your way out...

AS: Yeah, on the way we went to Blackfoot, Utah, and Blackfoot, Idaho and we landed in Cleveland.

RP: You visited your parents in Blackfoot, Idaho. How were they doing?

AS: Oh, they were really, they had this little teeny house, but it was nice. It was, you know Blackfoot Indians were, that's where the Blackfoot Indians has a reservation and all... so they were, they were really nice. She says they wanted, right away they found out my sister was L.A. certified teacher. They wanted her to teach, but she couldn't because she had, her daughter was born there and she was helping. But they wanted her to teach and they thought that she was so educated, but she said that they were nice. They weren't hostile or... after all, all the Indians, maybe they thought they were Indians. I don't know.

RP: And you ended up in Cleveland, near Cleveland. Where exactly did you end up?

AS: Well, out in Berea, that's -- Berea, B-E-R-E-A -- that's where Methodist College is, and Baldwin Wallace College. It's a really nice little town, and at first the people in town thought, "Oh, they're putting this housing here," you know when they think of housing. But then they found out that -- I think they were, I don't know how, near five, ten thousand -- it's, they found out that we were real good customers that left town really prosperous. It was nice. We'd go into the town there, and we gave them good, good business.

RP: How did the local people react to you, as Japanese Americans?

AS: Well, me, no, they got to know me and I think they... really nice. In fact, when I got pregnant I didn't which doctor to go. My girlfriend, she looked in to see who the best known doctor in town, so we went there and this doctor -- I guess I was his first -- and he couldn't get over it. And then when I went to the hospital, oh, the nurses kept coming in and he said, "Do you know you're the number one patient of the place?" 'Cause I said, "I'm feeling good. I don't need any," but they just wanted, they keep asking me, "Do you want a magazine? Do you want this?" I said, "No, I'm doing okay." So he told me, "You're the number one patient." They all wanted to see who I was. And I didn't give any problems or nothing, and so... it's really funny, when my daughter, too, so when she went to school -- in the housing, they had a school -- and the, well, then we joined the Sunday school there, and this fellow, he was, he was a, the bank president, and they were gonna have something, so he said, "May I borrow your daughter, because I don't have a granddaughter," and so he borrowed my daughter, and got to know the president of the bank there, the one bank in town. That's the bank. So anyway, it was really nice, and so they became members of that little church, since we were Christians.

And then years later when, well, they said, we heard they were gonna tear down the housing so we had to have a place, so my husband says, "Gee, I'll go to see the town banker, see if he'll give me a loan," don't have anything. So his friends were all veterans. They said, "Dan, you're not gonna get it. He won't, he won't give you anything, loan." So Dan goes and he talks to the fellow because he's the president, and he told him, Dan said, "Only thing I have" -- oh yeah, the government later gave us a thousand dollars, I don't know for what -- but he says, "I have a thousand dollar to buy the land." And he talked to him and he said, "Okay, Dan, I will give you the loan, and so when you get everything planned you come and I'll give you, sign for every month what..." and so Dan, so my husband asked him, "By the way, what you are basing? I, only thing I have is this thousand dollar to buy the land," and he said, "Your background, character check." See, when he worked, when he did the Texaco, every one of his, his farmers paid him up 'cause they knew that's Dan, that's what depend on, so I guess they checked back and he had a very good background. He had a background, so he says that's a character reference. So their friends couldn't believe that he's gonna get a loan, but then the meantime my mom says no, she's gonna sell her land, so she says, "Why don't you come back?" So my husband flew back and we bought this place. He couldn't stand the cold and he, poor Dan, every winter he had a cold. He's, he's cold-blooded kind of person, so... and he had to go eighteen miles into town to work his job. And then our friends got mad 'cause he's... "After they kick you out, you're going back?" I said, "No, it's different. They're all friendly there," we told 'em. They're all real friendly, so here we are.

RP: Did, did the local people in that area know about the evacuation at all?

AS: No, they didn't. Even, even the college professors, the young professors at Baldwin Wallace College, they didn't know. Even the director of the housing, he wondered why... 'cause it was for displaced people, so I went in there and I said, "I'm displaced." I told him what happened. I'm displaced from California. They wondered, they didn't know about it. And she's a educated person. But they didn't know about. Middle west, they didn't know about this evacuation. Isn't it funny, though? "God, why would they evacuate you? You're such nice people." I said, "We didn't. We were just put into concentration camps." But it's, isn't middle, middle places, they didn't understand. Even those young college professors, they want to have a little [inaudible], then my son, Brian, was about six years. I think they just wanted a little Japanese boy in there, so they told Dan, "You don't have to do anything," 'cause Dan said, "I have to work so long hours, I can't do different things, plan for the..." "You don't have to do anything." You know those college professors only work, like, three, three days a week or something? Those professors. So they say, "You don't have to do anything. Just come to the -- " I think they just wanted a little Japanese boy in there, so they were proud to have Brian in there. So isn't it middle west they didn't know? They wondered why such nice people... even to, later we heard, this fellow that became acquainted with Dan, he was an architect and his father in law was a principal of a high school in Cleveland, and he said there's a lot of high school children, the high school kids moved to Cleveland and he said they were the nicest students. They didn't have any, they weren't bitter or anything, and he was telling his son-in-law that the Japanese students, they were the best students. They didn't cause any trouble, and here they were, were in camp and all that. And he said they were the nicest students. They don't cause problems. You know, do the best you could and show the best part. I know even Lynne, too, they couldn't believe that. 'Course, she was a baby so it didn't matter, but she got to know, known as the princess of the housing project. It's funny, she's a... 'cause my mom always send all the clothes and stuff to her, and she always liked to dress nice and she did, so they always notice. [Laughs] And, gee, I got to be real good friends with all the people, but now all my friends in the housing -- well see, I lived too long -- the housing project, the last one was my next door neighbor. She passed away. But I have one, this Russian people -- they're second generation Russian -- they're the only ones in the housing. But yet, all these years they all kept writing to me. Isn't it something?

RP: You said this was a housing project for displaced people?

AS: Displaced army, people of soldiers coming back, want to go on to college. Lot of 'em went on to college or jobs and things. That's the kind of people served. Family people. It's really, it was nice. We all had kids and we all, starting from... most of us didn't have cars until we'd gotten enough money to buy a car, so we were all in this, down the... little... but all nice people, all different background. A Polish, Italian, Russian, German, they were just like me, us. But it's nice people, working people like that. But it's a funny thing, you know what? Even then, back, housing for the black people. They had different housing for black people. There was only one black family that came in there and we, we got to know... they were, and the mother kept the kids in her place unless they were invited to go into... my girlfriend said, "Yeah, see if they..." but I didn't know they had housing for just black people. Isn't that something? But see, now, I don't know how it is now.

<End Segment 33> - Copyright © 2009 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.