Marie Imahori: Spent time at Santa Anita, interned in Arkansas
Interview Q and A
What was life like before Pearl Harbor?
“Ohh. It was just ordinary. Just an ordinary house with my family. My mother, two sisters, and a brother. And then my older brother was already married so he was out of the house. So it was just ordinary family life. But it was different from today. Because we only had one little radio like this for the whole family. So it’s not like today where every room you go to you have a radio or TV or something. One little radio and so this is what we used to sit around and listen to as a family.”
How did you feel when you heard about the bombings?
“Well, it was awful. Yeah, you know. It’s just the worst part was going to school on Monday. Because we had no idea how the people were going to react. And I found out right away. I used to go, this is when I was in the eighth grade and Perry Jane High School used to be a combination of junior and senior high school. So you know I went to school and I was a little, kind of concerned. Then I saw this Caucasian kid named Bobby Patterson. And we always used to kid around and be friends. And I said ‘Hi Bobby,’ and he spit in my face. So I thought, ‘Oh well, that’s how he’s going to be.’ But he’s the only one out of all the people I know that did anything bad towards me. I knew other Caucasian kids that I’ve been friends with. And nobody said or did anything bad, just that one kid. And he’s the one that I thought was a friend. So you just never know. But I guess, being white and I was Japanese, he just figured we were all bad. You know, even though I didn’t have anything to do with the bombing. So that’s the way he expressed himself. So that was a shock.”
How did you find out about Executive Order 9066?
“ Well I think, you know I really don’t remember a whole lot. But, there were signs all over. And then they set up maps, districts. If you lived in a certain district, you couldn’t cross to go into another area. And this was all part of this public notice. So that my brother, who was already married, lived just a few blocks away, we couldn’t go to his house. And because he lived away from us, he and his wife went to a different camp. My family went to Santa Anita and he and his wife went, I think they went directly to Hira. So the family kind of separated there for a while.
How did you feel about the separation?
“Well you know what? Japanese people are brought up… You’ve heard this word “Gaman”? You just take things as it comes. You don’t worry about it. You think, ‘Well, so be it.’ And so, well especially being a kid, you know I never worried about stuff. And I guess it could’ve been bad, but I never worried about it. And then, both of my family was there and so when we left for camp, we all packed and it was not a problem. And then we didn't see my brother and his family until way later, because he went to a service. And then his wife and child, they joined him in Minneapolis because he was at the language school at Fort Snelling, which was in St. Paul, maybe. Minneapolis, St. Paul. And then when the camps started to close we just went up to Minnesota and joined by sister-in-law. So to me, I guess maybe being a kid, I didn’t worry about that stuff. And being in camp was not a problem for me because all I had to do was go to school. You know, just nothing.
What was the education like at school?
“Oh well, probably not the best. Because at first everything was disorganized. They had local teachers come in. Arkansas Hakujins, you know the Caucasians. I had never seen such a big people in my life. Tall and broad. The women were like, you know indescribable. And here we were, little tiny Orientals. And you have these tall teachers. That was an experience. But they also hired, among the ‘nisei,’ kids who had gone, maybe graduated school and maybe gone to junior college, maybe even college some of them. So they weren’t experience teachers, they were just doing the best they could. My friend’s sister taught us home ec., because she knew how to sew. But that was it, there was no home ec, usually means food and all this and that. No, it was just sewing. And my friend Aiko’s sister was our teacher. And that was a little strange. You know, your sister was my teacher. And she really didn't now any more that I did because I’ve been sewing ever since I was a kid. And I’m thinking, ‘Ooh she’s our teacher.’ But what are you gonna do? They just did the best they could. And then later they brought in more experienced teachers, or maybe retire teachers. Because I had one Algebra teacher, he was really old. And it was kinda funny. But I think that the administration did the best they could. And maybe a lot of people didn’t want to come into the camp to teach, I don’t know. And so you just did the best you could. And I’m sure that’s what they did too.”
Did you expect the coming of the order of 9066?
“I had no idea. We had no idea what was happening. And being Japanese people, you know we already felt, we always stuck together. And because of the war we felt more isolated. Or maybe we just didn’t pay attention, I don’t know. Or being a kid, I didn’t even care. All I can think of is Bobby Patterson, he’s one memory I will never forgot. He was a Hakujin kid. He had a little scar on his lip which meant he must have been mischievous when he was little kid. And that’s it. I don’t remember too much else."
What were some of the reactions you witnessed after the Executive Order?
“I don’t think, even after family, I don’t think we even talked about it. Maybe my mother and maybe my older sisters did. But I don’t remember, because I was just a kid. So it’s not like they hauled us into a meeting or something like that. But maybe… Yeah, I have no idea what my mother went through. But she relied a lot on my older sister. I had a brother, a sister, Mary, and then me, and then a younger brother. So my mother relied on Yuki who was the oldest. So maybe they talked about it, I don’t know. But personally, it had no effect on me. All I knew was that we weren’t free to go wherever we wanted. We couldn’t go to the store on the other side of the street, you couldn’t go there because we couldn't. We didn’t have the freedom. You had to stay within your own little section. Mom, the Nisei. She just took it in stride. You know, Nisei people didn’t complain, never argued about authority. If they said ‘You go,” you went. And so I don’t think, I don’t remember anyway, I don’t remember any discussions about what are we gonna do. Maybe, maybe she talked to my sister. I really don’t know. And my sister’s not here anymore so I can’t ask her. So I started out with two brothers and two sisters and now I have none.”
What items were you allowed to bring?
“You were supposed to take only what you could carry. And because we were just my mother, two sisters, and a younger brother we couldn’t carry much. So we followed orders. They said bring only what you can carry so that’s what we do. Old suitcases, I forget what we put them in. And then other people, we watched other people checking in and they’ve got loads of stuff. And I’m thinking, you know why were they allowed to bring all that stuff and we didn’t. They brought their own bedding and all kinds of extra stuff. And I remember we had one neighbor in Santa Anita, they brought food and all kinds of extra stuff and I thought there’s no way you could carry all that without a bunch of bins. Well this is a big family, father and grown son, so maybe they managed to do it. But it was actually supposed to only what you could carry. So that’s what we did. There’s a Japanese expression: bakashojoki. That means you’re honest to a point of fault. You don’t question, you just go ahead and do whatever somebody tells you. And I think maybe a lot of people like that. Because there were other people like us, just take what you can carry. So you know, I think that’s life. There’re always people who know how to go around and make things look up to their own benefit. And we, maybe we were naïve. I don’t know. So that’s what we did, clothes. Just mainly clothes, personal things.”
How much time were you given to prepare?
“Not very long. Maybe 2-3 weeks, something like that. So the house was a mess. We didn’t have time to sell anything. And people who sold didn’t get very much for what they sold. The white people who were left knew they had no choice. So they’d get a whole truck full of stuff and say, “We’ll give you $5 for this.” And what are you gonna do? So you just took the $5. But we didn’t have time, we didn’t know how to even go about selling anything. So we just left everything. Or to begin with, we didn’t have that much anyway. You know just necessities. And then the landlord, an older man, very kind, he said, “Don’t worry about everything, I’ll take care of it.” And then when we were in Santa Anita he would send us and write us a letter and he would enclose: “Five dollars, I sold something for $5, I sold something 10.” And you know these are things that are probably, I don’t know because I didn’t pay attention at the time, probably cost a lot more. But he sold what he could and he sent that money to us. Mr. Grove, very nice, old man. So when we came back from camp, he was still alive. Very old, I don’t remember how old he looked but very 5:40. But he was so happy to see us. And this man had been very kind to us. So you know, not all white people are bad. He was a Caucasian man. He owned a lot of homes right near the Buddhist church where he lived. And he did that for us. So I had good thoughts about Mr. Grove.”
How did you feel knowing that you were leaving your neighborhood?
“Well, again, I don’t remember. I think I felt sad because I had boxes of paper dolls at that time. Paper dolls, it was the one thing I played with. I made dresses for them, I had boxes of them. And there’s no way we could take any of it. So had to leave it. And that probably, the only time I felt bad was having to leave my paper dolls. And it didn’t matter. It’s not important. But to me they were important because that’s all I had. The paper dolls and a Shirley Temple doll about that tall. That’s all I owned. And I didn’t take it. I left it. So, what are you going to do?
How was the treatment on your way to camp?
“They were pretty good, it was just a little strange to look up and see a soldier with a rifle guarding you on this train. It’s not like we’re gonna do something bad. And then, I don’t remember too much about getting to Santa Anita. I don’t remember, I vaguely recall riding in a truck. But whether that was from my house to the assembly area, I don’t remember. I don’t even know how we got there. I can’t remember all that. Somebody must have driven us because we all had our luggage. But I don’t know how we got there. And then from that point to Santa Anita, we must have ridden buses. But I can’t remember that. This was a long, long time ago. And I can’t remember that. But I remember the train ride from Santa Anita to Arkansas because we had to keep the shades down. We couldn't look out. And if you kind of peaked somebody would come and tell you, “Put the shades down.” And I don’t what the difference is. You’re on a moving train, nobody’s gonna jump off. But that’s the way it was. And they must have fed us but I don’t remember what we had to eat. And other than that it was a long ride. People treated us all right. And the soldiers who were guarding us, they never said or did anything bad. They must have had mixed emotions too because they knew that most of us were American citizens. And they’re in the American army and they’re guarding these citizens. Kind of weird, huh? But I don’t remember seeing anything happen. Of course too, most of use were very quiet. And we would follow orders, so there was no need for anybody to be getting upset or barking orders or anything like that.”
Do you remember how long you were in camp?
“Yep. We went to Santa Anita in April of 1942 and were there until October. October of 1942 we went to Arkansas. And we were in Arkansas until October of 1945. When the war ended people started leaving the camps. And we stayed as long as we could because my mother, my two sisters, my younger brother and I. Then finally towards the end we signed up to leave. We went to Minneapolis by train.”
What was your typical day like at camp?
“It was just routine. Get up, wash up, go to the mess hall for breakfast and then go to school. That was my life. And then I would walk to school with a whole bunch of kids within the area. Some kids from my block, some from block 14. I was on 15, the next stop was 14. And we would get together and walk to school together. I actually walked quite a way to get to school. And when school was over we’d walk home. And then, you know I really don’t know a whole lot about what I did after I got home from school. There really wasn’t that much to do. So it must’ve been homework, we had homework. During the summer time we took classes. They offered all different kinds of classes. So at one point my friends and I took pattern drafting, where you learn how to make your own patterns. And then one time we took some other class, but we didn’t do very well so the teacher asked use to drop out. We were fooling around so much. Summer time. It wasn’t regular school. But it was fun. Yeah, so most of the time I spent with my friends. And there was nothing to do. It’s not like, “Well, let’s walk over to the store.” There was one store for the whole camp way far away. And so we all stayed pretty much within our own block. So most of my friends were from my own neighborhood. Within my own block or a couple blocks away.”
How long were you expecting to stay in camp?
“I had no idea. I don’t think we ever, at least I don’t remember, ever talking about that. We just lived life day to day until finally people started leaving. And then we kind of wondered what was going to happen. And then my sister in law, because my brother went overseas, my sister in law came to 4:10 to join us with her baby. And then she said when Harry comes back we’re gonna go to Minneapolis. That’s when she said later maybe you could join us there. And that’s what we did. And Minneapolis is such a nice place.”
Did you make any new friends?
“In camp? Oh yeah! I ran into a few people that I knew from grammar school here. But most of them were all new friends. But his is 1942. Do you know some of us still get together every year? We’ve been friends all these years. So every spring I sent out invitations and now it’s about 10 of us. One lady passed away, one lady was too sick to come. We’re all 80, 60 years old. And so once they come, most of them are using a cane or a walker. But we’re still getting together. Once a year. And the strange part of that is that when we get together, we don’t talk about camp. It’s about, “Oh what are your grandkids doing? Or what are you doing now?”