Densho Digital Archive - Margaret Saito Interview (denshovh-smargaret

<Begin Segment 12>

KP: All right, this is tape two of a continuing interview with Margaret Saito and we were talking about skating.

MS: Yes.

KP: And ordering from the catalog. Do you remember anything else that you ordered from the catalog?

MS: No, nothing specific. Clothing I'm sure but I don't recall any special thing.

KP: So where was your, where was your block inside the camp? Were you on the outside, on the inside?

MS: After my cousins left camp, we went to Block 12. That was the outer block facing Heart Mountain. So it was right there every morning, out the window, that was Heart Mountain. That was a bigger area than the Block 17. They were next to each other but this was a bigger area because my cousin's family was larger. And so they had that unit. So that's where we moved and then stayed 'til the end of camp.

KP: You said you were also involved in the Girl Scouts?

MS: Yes.

KP: Tell us about that.

MS: Oh, I was in the Girl Scout troupe, I think it was fourteen, and Aya Nishimura was our leader. And it was mostly people my age, maybe a year older, and those people are still around and come to the reunions. So we take Girl Scout pictures of all the Girl Scouts at Heart Mountain, there were many troupes. We take those pictures and it's nice we're still able too.

KP: What kind of things did you do?

MS: Oh, I remember two summers we camped in Yellowstone. Those were really fun times. And one of those Girl Scout members, she reminded me that during one of times one of the girls was in the outhouse and there was a bear so they couldn't come out. [Laughs] So they were trying to get help, get the bear away. It's things like that, and I remember the wild strawberries that were growing by the building that we stayed in. It was beautiful. I couldn't, you couldn't ask for a nicer place to camp. It was really a nice memory.

KP: I know some of the boys who went up there did projects that they worked on. Did you work on projects?

MS: No, no projects. I don't remember doing any good for anybody. You know, like repairing. I don't recall anything like that.

KP: Did you hike?

MS: Yeah, I did hike. We hiked. And then we earned badges and things like that.

KP: Have you ever hiked before you went Yellowstone?

MS: No.

KP: What was that like?

MS: Oh, well, it was fun. I mean ,you're young, gosh, you have energy to do all these things and gosh that must have been a different Yellowstone. It was really... it's changed a lot. I have been there since then.

KP: At that time, did you go to any ranger activities? Were there any park rangers that took you around?

MS: There must have been park rangers but I don't recall anything like a fireside thing. No, I don't recall anything like that. And we may have done something in our own but I don't recall that. And I don't recall what we ate or anything like that.

KP: But you remember the bear?

MS: Yes, the bear and the wild strawberries. That is was just kind of a fun thing that we did.

KP: What did you do in camp as a Girl Scout?

MS: Well, we earned badges but I'm just wondering... there must have been crafts and things like that. I know there was a basket badge, different kinds of badges. But I don't know the different things that I did to earn them.

KP: Where did your scout uniform come from?

MS: My mother made it. She made lots of things. I don't know how she did it but she did.

KP: Did she work at Heart Mountain?

MS: In Block 12, she worked in the mess hall there. She did the special foods for diabetics or special need kind of things. But, so I think at that time, my sister and I, we just went to the mess hall on our own. And so I don't recall things like sitting with anybody special or with a family or with friends or what. That whole mess hall thing, things I remember that I don't like are canned spinach, things that they would give us over and over and apple butter, over and over, we never had apple butter before that. And there were lots of canned things that probably to this day I won't eat. And they had things like rutabaga and things that we never heard of. But that's how it was. I don't know, some was good and some wasn't. I know they did have holiday times. Like at Christmas, they would have a tree. I don't know where they got it from. It would be at the mess hall that they would... people sent gifts from like Darby, Pennsylvania. I think the Quakers and some other groups, kind people, did send gifts to us. So I do recall getting things and even writing and having pen pals. I do remember somebody was from was Upper Darby Pennsylvania... and writing. But I've lost all contact with everybody like that. It was just kind of fun.

KP: What was your favorite food in the mess hall? Do you remember? Something you looked forward to?

MS: I don't think I had a favorite. [Laughs] I don't remember anything that was a favorite.

KP: You had a camera in camp and took pictures. Whose camera was that?

MS: No, I don't know whose camera it was. I don't know why I have these pictures. I'm just lucky to have pictures. Somehow people gave me pictures. I think the Kishimotos gave me pictures, and some of these people that are in the pictures but I don't know. It's just a mystery to me.

KP: So you had, aside from your immediate family, you had an aunt and cousins in the --

MS: Yes.

KP: How many, who were they?

MS: My aunt Mary lived in Block 12 and she's the one that we were in the wedding. So she and her husband had a baby boy in camp, his name was Douglas. I have seen Douglas since then. He lives in Santa Clara now. And they left camp early, too. They're the ones that went to Cleveland, Ohio, and then other aunt and uncle went to Salt Lake City. The youngest brother, my father's youngest brother, Frank, he left camp early and went to Colorado with his mother, my grandmother. And so they farmed. And so it was just my mother and my sister and I left of that Taguchis in camp. Everybody else was out.

KP: So you spent the rest of the war in camp?

MS: Yes.

KP: Anything else comes up from that time in camp? Do you remember any of the protests or draft?

MS: No, I don't remember any of that. I've learned all that since. One of my girlfriend's brother was one of those "no-no boys" and we see him at these reunions. She never comes. She's my age and then her sister is my sister's age. They were in the same block as we were but we see the brother come every time and we always speak to him and ask him about his sisters but anyway we're just happy to know him. And that he was one that stood up. Because I know they were just really castigated for a long time. So we're proud that some had the guts to do that.