Densho Digital Archive - Rose Niguma Interview (denshovh-nrose

<Begin Segment 2>

RN: Well, when I think about camp, it's rather depressing. But one thing, the people in there were very loyal to this country. And myself, it never occurred to me that United States would ever lose the war. I always felt strongly that they would not. And sometimes we had our meals and the, meals in the lunch room that we had is part of they call it mess hall. Some of the meals they cooked had spoiled items, things like that, and some people told us it's similar to the prison fare that they're having for people, prisoners in the penitentiaries. We knew that. We accepted, but I myself, sometime I skipped the meals if I didn't like them. And we had finally had canteen where they sold food stuff and other items that people would need. But with the salary that we're receiving, I received the top salary which was nineteen dollars a month. Others were eight dollars, twelve dollars, nineteen dollars. So with the eighteen dollars, it doesn't stretch very much, but I did go to the canteen, find something that I felt that I could have which was preferable to camp, so I did that.

But, in a situation like that, you're confined. Psychologically, you're not happy. You know what the truth of the situation is. So I begin to lose weight, but I went on. But I had towards the end, I had an attack of appendicitis. So when I went to the hospital, no one thought I was in any serious trouble, but I was. That's because the Issei taught their children to be stoic, not to show pain, which is not wise. The more you holler, the more attention you get see, but I, it stayed with me. So when I went to the hospital, I was in a very serious situation, but they never knew. But then when they examined me, they told me my appendix would burst, so they iced me, but there was no surgeon in the camp. So they had to call in for another surgeon from another camp, and he came in. He was a person in his mid-forties. He's at the height of his ability, so he performed the surgery on me. The incision was like a thread, and I thought, "Oh my, I don't have to worry about scar." But his assistant I'm sure was not a nurse at all. She told other aides there what, you know, to give them a lesson. She came up to my bed. She lifted up my sterilized gauze, and she rubbed her hand right on top of my incision. That gave me staph infection, so the doctor had to perform a second surgery. So this time, the scar was not like a thread. It was about half inch wide, and I never forgot that sloppy nurse. I disliked her immensely. She was actually heavy, obese. She walked: plump, plump, plump, you know. And I wanted to tell the doctor what had really happened, but I couldn't. She's always at his side because she's his aide, and I was afraid she might do something to me if I report it, retaliate, so I kept very quiet. But there are other, I couldn't sleep at night very easily. I'm in there for a month now. People kept wondering why on earth I'm in there. I never told them anything. But there was a very nice gentle Caucasian nurse that came around looking at the, peep in the ward, and she noticed that I was not sleeping. She come up to my bed, sit down on the chair, and converse with me until I could go to sleep. She's very gentle and kind, not like this other nurse at all. And finally, I decided that I spent all my time teaching Sunday school, having responsibility of five nursery schools, seeing that they all function correctly, I decided I have to leave. I gave whatever I am to give to them. It's time for me to leave because I have to think of my mother and my two brothers in the service. We have to start somewhere because we lost everything.