<Begin Segment 11>

MR: I was just about to ask you what you did for a social life?

AS: Well, during our married life, we didn't have much social life. We worked all the time except if we were invited to a wedding or some Buddhist thing was going on. If my husband was interested, then we went. But I did everything what he wanted to do. I never demanded for myself.

MR: Did you have any neighbors that you could visit with while you were farming?

AS: Yes, yes. Neighbors on the farm is far apart because the farm is so big, you know. And across the road, Itami family, just had a letter from her daughter. Both father and mother passed away in Ontario, Oregon, and they had just one daughter and two sons. She just wrote to me from San Francisco. She's living there now. She never got married, and her two brothers are, let's see, one is in Southern California and the other brother is in Corvallis, I think she said, so I thought I'd write back and tell her maybe I could meet him, you know. It's been a very long time, but it will be very nice, yes.

MR: So you worked and you cooked and you did a lot of washing. Did you have time to do any creative things for yourself on the farm?

AS: Not very much, no, not very much. Everything was for my husband.

MR: So that brings me back to dancing because that's what you do now, and you say you traveled. Where have you gone with your dancing?

AS: Yes. Well, I've gone to Memphis, Tennessee. And in the spare time, I went to see the famous rock dancer, what's his name? Elvis Presley. He has a whole place there in his name. And it was raining so hard that day we had to run around in umbrella, and the water was just rushing all over, but we made a quick trip there. Then I went to Charleston, is that North Dakota or South Dakota? And then I went to Florida, Miami, Florida. They had a national, world competition there, then, also, to another Florida city, I'm trying to think. Then where else did I go? I went to so many places, oh, and they have a national competition at Las Vegas. I think I've been there twice and also to Bahamas. I went there twice. This time next month, I'll be going to Ireland for world competition. I don't think I'll be able to participate since I didn't have enough practice. Then the national competition will be coming around to Las Vegas again. We kind of repeat many of the cities. And we'll be going to, oh, and I also went to Alabama, Birmingham.

MR: It keeps you pretty busy.

AS: Yes.

MR: Can you tell us about your last trip?

AS: My last trip?

MR: To Washington.

AS: Oh, that was really exciting. I thought I was going to the big party, but I was not invited to the big party. The one I was invited to was the western music, and there, too, so many people, no room to dance. You just stood in one place and just move your body left to right like this. And this famous band leader, I should remember his name. I understand he is very, very famous, and everybody went up there to shake hands, so I thought I'd better go too when I had the chance. So I went up way up front, and everybody he just tap them like this. When he came to me, he looked at me. He bowed to me, and he shook hands with me so low. I was a queen. [Laughs] I thought, my, how nice of him, you know.

MR: And this was an inaugural ball that you went to on the 20th of January of this year?

AS: Yes.

MR: Was President Bush there?

AS: No. He, there were two events going on the same day, so he was at the bigger event. [Laughs] They invited 70,000 people, and the place was just packed. I hope I could get to the next one, the big one, I'm hoping if I still live that long.

MR: How do they choose who to invite, do you know?

AS: I don't know how they do that. No, I don't know. I felt very honored.

MR: So looking back from how you were treated during the war 'til being invited to an inaugural ball, what do you think about all that, how things have changed?

AS: Yes. That really is unbelievable. When I was in the Guadeloupe Buddhist Temple, people used to throw rocks at us from behind. There's so much discrimination in those days. And when our class was invited to go swimming, I could not go in. I had to wait till the others finish swimming and come out. And now, the feeling has changed so much. I just cannot believe, but I think it is changing for the better, and it makes me so happy that it is. And I do believe President Bush is doing his very best to have the Democrats and the Republicans all work together. I do believe that is a wonderful thing.

MR: Is there anything else you'd like to talk to us about?

AS: Well, I think I covered things pretty full.

MR: Or is there anything that we talked about that you think you need to say more about?

AS: Oh, well, I can't think of anything right now.

MR: Well, I've run out of questions, and I just want to thank you so much for coming here and sharing your story with us. It's going to be a nice addition to the Legacy Center's stories.

AS: Thank you. Thank you, very much.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2005 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.