Oral History Videos

Joseph Ichiuji
Interview Length: 1:55

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT:
But you know, camp was very much like in the army.  You were assigned a number and you had to line up for mass and toilet and showers.  And my folks lost control of the family.  They don't have a family life anymore because you know, back home, you used to eat at least once in the evening, the whole family got together and ate.  But once you got in camp, you lost that.  You either ate with your friends or you never ate with your family.  Father no longer became the breadwinner.  So in that respect, I think the parents lost control of the children.  It was kind of bad.  It was quite a conversion for them.

Interviewer: How did that affect your father, being he was the head of the family and the strong disciplinarian?

Yeah, well, he lost that.  He lost that.  Yeah, I guess no one ever had control over the family.  So in that respect, I think he felt pretty bad about that.  And my mother too, I guess.  My mother was always a housewife, she was at home all the time.  Of course she worked at the fish cannery.  But most of her life she was a housewife.  And then she got to mingle with the other people.  And so in that respect, I don't know.  How my mother, I think she felt more liberated, do things that she wanted to do.