<Begin Segment 6>

AC: So how was it for your family? War has broken out, and all of a sudden, with war, your family is on this farm in this tiny little community. How was it for you?

SS: Well, I was trying to think... I remember Dad, like Paul mentioned, that he used to get his hair cut from Mr. Pruitt until their... and then that one time he just sat and sat and sat and Mr. Pruitt didn't cut his hair. He said, "Well, I'm sorry, I can't take care of you," and he showed him this sign that said, "No Japs." And it was just kind of the town thing, I think, maybe the city council got together or something and might have done that, I don't know.

AC: How did it affect you? Was it all the businesses or just a few businesses?

SS: Well, I don't remember that much really. I think I was a freshman or sophomore in high school, and really you don't think that deeply when you're that age. I didn't, anyway. I'm sure it bothered my folks a lot. They worried a lot about it, but I don't think it affected us too much. I remember Jim, my younger brother, was hunting with his friend Billy Clement next door, and they were crossing a fence, and the gun that Jim was holding went off and it hit Billy, and he was hurt pretty badly. My mom was so worried that the Clements were just going to be so furious and call us names and everything, but they didn't, they were real good about it. Jim and Billy were good friends after that even.

AC: You were able to hold onto firearms? I mean, the boys still had guns and things like that?

SS: I guess. They must have.

AC: So when Roosevelt came out with this declaration that ordered people to be evacuated from the coast, I mean, the Japanese going into "assembly centers" and internment camps, did that make any impression upon you at all?

SS: Well, as Paul was saying, my oldest sister was in the Yakima Valley, and she had just had a baby April 26th, and I think they had the baby in May for the "assembly center" in Portland. And my dad was so, wanted her to get out, and he helped a lot in the community to get that camp going in Nyssa where people could come out and find work on the sugar beet farms and things. So my sister and her husband and the baby came out. I think they stayed with us for a while and then they had to go to this camp, because they were supposed to be... I don't know, it was the rules, I guess. But I remember my sis telling us about the camp and how each family had a little cubicle, and the planks, the flooring was, it was a livestock pavilion, you know, so she said there were cracks about an inch wide with each plank. And so it was hot, it was getting to be June, and that odor just steamed up, that manure odor would just come up through the cracks, and it was just pretty wretched. Anyway, that was just an "assembly center," so they were sent out to Minidoka and places like that. Those that didn't go out on work release had to go to the camps.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2004 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.