<Begin Segment 23>

RP: So did the, did your parents come back from Poston with you?

MS: Yeah, they, they went to a -- see, my brother was back East, so they went to a, they had a school or someplace they turned into a place in L.A. They stayed there for a while, then my brother's wife had a home in Santa Barbara, so my brother came out and moved my parents to Santa Barbara to live with his wife's family, so they had a place to go to. They lived there for a long time, then they moved to, finally they moved, my son, my brother came back from back East and bought a place in Pasadena, so my folks lived in Pasadena for, until they passed away. My brother came back to live here after the war, 'cause he was a, he was in the thirties, so they didn't call him into the service, but my younger brother got called. He was in the Air Force, trained in Texas. Well, my husband's two brothers were in service and my, Isao was in the service and my other sister's husband was in, I think, how many? And here, the same family, my husband and I were "enemy aliens." Isn't that crazy? I think, here our own family was fighting and we were "enemy aliens." That doesn't make sense, does it? That's how stupid these people are. Don't you really, when you think about it, isn't that stupid? And my brother worked making guns. You know my brother?

RP: George?

MS: Guns, and then my brother in law worked for DuPont and they're making chemicals for chemical warfare in the service, but we're "enemy aliens." Does that -- and then my husband's other brother went to, into, in the Camp Savage, is it, that trained interpreters? He was in that.

RP: He was in there?

MS: He didn't go overseas, but that's what he did. He interpreted the prisoners or something. And all that was going on, but we were in camp. We're "enemy aliens." Isn't that stupid? It's hard to figure it out, isn't it? Nowadays fun to talk about; wasn't fun those days. But I often think about, oh, what's the matter? When you think about it, it doesn't make sense, does it? Your brother, I had two brothers and my husband had, and a brother in law, too, that were over there, and like, let's see, my husband's sister's husband's in the South Pacific, and he got bald, he says he got scared one night, that's how, he tell his kids that's how he lost his hair. [Laughs] He says he got so scared. But Isao'd tell you about, he was, he was the 442nd, he'd, then he'd climb up this mountain and he went up both, and he met a German face to face. They both got scared and they ran away or something. Did he tell you about that? He said he went back to Europe. He says there's nothing he could remember. It's all cleaned up and changed, where he was stationed, 442nd. Of course, my other brother was in 442nd, too, my younger, my husband's youngest brother.

RP: Was he overseas?

MS: Yeah, he went overseas. He was in the 442nd also.

RP: You mentioned earlier that when you were in camp, that was, that was an Indian reservation.

MS: Yeah, that's, it's Indian reservation.

RP: Do you, do you remember seeing any...

MS: Well, some of 'em kinda worked there. I know they were around there and then the, I don't know whether, some of 'em worked there, I think, like at first, like puttin' up telephone wire, all that. They worked there. We'd see them, but then before, after a few left they brought some in to live in the barrack, but they want to live in teepees. They won't work. That's why all that farm land that the Japanese people developed. They're raising everything, chickens and had poultry and vegetables. They were independent. They thought maybe Indian people carried on. Heck no. They don't want to, they want government to support them, and they wouldn't live in the barracks. They want to live in teepees and be cared for, we found out. That's ideal, see, I think the government, according to the politicians, my husband was saying that they hope the Indians would come in there and be able to live there, but that's why it all went to pot. They don't want to be, get out and work.

<End Segment 23> - Copyright © 2009 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.