Densho Digital Archive - Margaret Saito Interview (denshovh-smargaret

<Begin Segment 17>

RP: Margaret, you were talking about the Sacramento Japanese town and there was a redevelopment project that changed the character of the community.

MS: Yes.

RP: Could you tell us about that?

MS: Well, everyone had to move from that area. It's now where Macy's and the Sacramento Union building is now. It's like Third Street, Fourth Street, around there, Fifth Street, and Capitol and maybe I or J Street. That's where it was before. And we lived on Third Street.

RP: So the redevelopment project took out most of the stores from Japan?

MS: Yes, it did, all of it, yeah. Like lots of other cities have done, too.

RP: And about what time did that project occur?

MS: Oh, I think in the '50s. I graduated in 1950. It was after that, the early '50s.

KP: Anything else? One other question I had is, did your mother work when you moved from Spokane down to Sacramento?

MS: Yes, she did housework for people. And then she did that for many years, and then she went to barber school, she became a barber, she had her own barber shop. She built a barber shop next to her house over there in the south area, it's that direction. She was a professional and became independent and she did very well.

KP: Did she ever remarry after --

MS: No, she didn't. And so she died in 2000, yeah. So, and then eventually she joined this church. She became a, she was never a practicing Buddhist but her family was of that faith. So she had a good life and she was very independent.

KP: She lived long enough to see the redress?

MS: Yes.

KP: What did she think about that? Did you talk to her about that at all?

MS: No, I didn't. I don't know what she thought of it.

KP: What did you think about it?

MS: Oh, well, I really didn't have any thoughts about it. I didn't work for it or do anything for it. I really, I really don't have any special thoughts about it. It was for those people that really lost something, yeah. I'm not deserving but that's how it is.

KP: And did you ever, did you talk with your... did your mother and your father ever talk about camp with you after the camp?

MS: No. Well, sometimes but not much. That generation really didn't say much about it. We're the ones that are telling our children. But no, my mother never talked about it and then my father rarely did either. It wasn't something that was --

KP: Did you talk to camp with your sister and your cousins at all?

MS: Yes. The cousins that were there and the cousins that came later, we have talked about it since.

KP: How do you think that camp experience affected your life and the life of your family?

MS: Oh, I don't know if it affected it at all. That's just life. It just happened and we just learned from it, that's about it. We just went through it, that's about it. It wasn't a real sad time because we were kids and we were just running and having a good time. So I can't, I'm not bitter. It could've been something else.

KP: Anything else, Richard?

RP: Margaret, in that same kind of vein, did you think the camp experience affected the relationship between your mother and father?

MS: No, I don't theirs was a good marriage. So, no, I wouldn't say that at all... with no hesitation.

KP: Anything else you want to share with us?

MS: Oh, well, I can't think of anything.

KP: Alright.