Questions and Answers
Q: "What were the living conditions like in the camp?"
A: "They were very cramped. The walls were thin and they had very little privacy. The housing units were called barracks. " Q: "Did you continue your schooling?" A: "Yes, I graduated from high school while we were interned." Q: "Were you able to practice some Japanese traditions?" A: "Yes, Grace was, but it was much more difficult. The food was much different, and some were afraid to celebrate their culture because they had been shamed for it." After Grace and her family were released from the camps, they and many other families had trouble continuing practicing their traditions and also a "model American citizen". They felt as if they had to prove their 'American-ness' because citizenship wasn't enough. Oshita says, "It's hard to believe now that things like that happened." Years later, Oshita spent much of her time educating schools about the injustice of the internment camps during World War II. |
Notice: Grace has been diagnosed with Alzheimers. Her memory about the camps is not as vivid as it used to be. Luckily, her daughter Lin remembers the stories her mother told her years before.
Q: "Who were your family members?" A: "My father, Edward Oshita, Stepmother Rae, and her grandmother." Q: "Where did you live?" A: "We lived in San Fransisco, California. In Japantown." Q:"What did your father do for a living?" A: "Grace's father was a business leader who owned the Miso Factory" Q: "How old were you when Peal Harbor was bombed?" A: "Grace was a senior in high school (1941)" Q: "Where was your family taken to after the evacuation?" A: "Grace's father was taken before the official evacuation announcement to a camp in South Dakota." Q: "What happened after Edward left?" A: "Grace, her stepmother, and grandmother were first relocated to the Tanforan Race Track in San Bruno, where they temporarily lived in horse stables. On their journey to the camp, the windows on the bus were blacked out so they could not see where they were headed." Q: "When were you placed in the Topaz Internment Camp?" A: "After spending a few months in the horse stables, Grace and her family boarded a train to Topaz, Utah." |
These are shell broaches Grace made while living in the internment camps. The flowers are painted shells collected from Tule Lake, in California.
While in the camps, the internees went to school. These are a few of Grace's items.