<Begin Segment 14>

LT: So let's talk more about camp and how your life was different in camp, as opposed to your life in Hood River.

SA: 'Course, like in camp, you get a feeling of... oh, maybe compared to so-called "gang feeling." See, you're not united with the family as much, 'cause you're breaking apart, and you become more closely formed with a certain group of guys. I think that's what happened. I think that's what happened to me. You just, yeah, you're not relying on each other anymore, you just, you're being fed and housed, you know.

LT: So you spent more time with your friends.

SA: Huh?

LT: You spent more time with your friends.

SA: Oh, definitely, yeah.

LT: So what kinds of things did you do in camp with your friends? Went to school?

SA: Oh, we used to, at Tule Lake, we used to go up to Castle Mountain there, and in the spring, look for rattlesnakes. Then we'd catch one and chop the head off, and bring it back because a lot of the Isseis liked rattlesnake.

LT: Isn't that a little dangerous?

SA: Huh?

LT: Wasn't that a little dangerous?

SA: Not early in the spring, they're still in dormancy, see. They're kind of inactive. They won't do it in the midsummer when they're active. [Laughs]

LT: What else did you do with your friends?

SA: We used to do some carving, you know, but that's about it. Walk around the camp. Not much to do, you're kind of wired in, fenced.

LT: You did attend school for a little bit.

SA: Yeah.

LT: So how was school in camp? The same or different from school in Oak Grove?

SA: Oh, I think it lacked discipline in camp. But when I was discharged and applied for Oregon State, they told me, "You didn't complete high school, so you have to, if you want to come to our school, you have to take an entrance exam." And I figured, god, I'll never pass the entrance exams. That's the reason I ended up at Pacific. Somebody told me about Pacific, so I applied there, and I was two weeks late, but they took me.

LT: Okay, so you mentioned that there was not as much discipline in the school at camp. Can you talk more about that?

SA: Oh, yeah. They'd be talking and not really listening to the teacher and so forth. Some guys would be reading comic book in school. It just wasn't quite there. And the teachers never required much. I guess they figured you're in captivity.

LT: Do you remember what you studied?

SA: No, I really don't. I remember taking a physics course from somebody from around Seattle, John Arima, I think, was his name, but he was a good teacher. But a lot of the teachers were Caucasian, you know.

LT: Okay. Well, we talked about your experiences in camp. What did your father do when he returned to Minidoka?

SA: Well, I don't know what he did. Because when he returned, that was about the time I started to get ready to go join the army. So that was... I don't know what he did much. He was home a while before I met him again, because I was out working, you know.

[Interruption]

LT: You were in camp for two years living in a Japanese American community, different from Oak Grove. You also were there because the government had placed you and your family there. Your thoughts about your wartime incarceration?

SA: Oh, well, I didn't think it was necessary, you know. Like you said, my brother was in the service, and a lot of other Niseis were in service. But I didn't think there were going to be any sabotage or anything like that by the Japanese. [Coughs] Excuse me. No, I thought it was not necessary, but just one of those things, you got to take it as it comes, I guess.

LT: Okay. Did you ever think about challenging the fact that you were placed in camp?

SA: No, I never had that depth of legal thought.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2013 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.