Densho Digital Archive - Russell Demo Interview (denshovh-drussell-01-0025)

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RP: So you came back to, eventually came back to California after you recovered from all your wounds?

RD: Yeah, well, I got discharged the 26th. I stayed there for a couple, three days, friend of mine and I stayed there. We had a couple gals, we hung around there for a couple, three days. First thing I did was bought my ticket to get home. Then we celebrated for three days and then I got home on a Sunday. And my train in Oakland, and I got on the ferry boat and came over to San Francisco. I remember my mother saying that they were having some big dinner at my grandmother's house. So I got in the, took a taxi up there and the whole family was there. My father was even there, and all my uncles, and my grandfather was talking to me about my cousin Albert, the big hero he was, said he played the saxophone or the clarinet up in Alaska someplace.

RP: He was a big hero?

RD: He was only kidding. I was surprised, my mother was there and everybody was there. 'Cause, I mean, my grandmother and grandfather were still associated with my mother and everything else, they didn't blame her for anything, you know. And they were still, she was invited to a lot of things there. That was quite a reunion. Everybody cried. Then we were there, my mother got married and she moved to Yuba City. So I stayed in San Francisco for a while with some friends that had taken over the house that we stayed in on Chattanooga Street there, and then I moved up to Yuba City. And then my aunt and uncle owned a bar here in Corning, and I come up in August, I guess, to visit with them. I spent a couple weeks up here, and I worked behind the bar and helped 'em out a little bit, then I went back to Yuba City. And they called me up, wanted to know if I wanted to come up there in olive season and work from two o'clock 'til about eight o'clock in the afternoon when they guys got off work and they needed an extra guy working, helping in there. And the night bartender got fired, and I've been here ever since. That's the best thing that ever happened to me, I raised all my kids up here in a small town.

RP: Did you, did you share your, your experiences at Manzanar with your kids?

RD: Well, Manzanar, talked maybe a little bit about Manzanar. I didn't talk too much about anything, I don't think.

RP: [Addressing RD's daughter] So you didn't know anything about his service then?

S: Very little about it until the last few years, he started talking a little bit more about it. And in fact, he went up to my granddaughter's seventh grade classroom and shared some of his experiences and took his medals up there and shared it with the class. They were really excited. But he never really talked too much about being in the war. I guess too painful to him.