| Georgette remembers December 8, 1941. "My
sisters, brothers, and I were waiting for the school bus like
always. The bus approached us and then passed right by without
stopping. I started to run after it, but my sister held me back.
She said we would walk to school. I could see the laughing faces
of the children looking at us through the back window of the
bus." For her family, and more than 120,000 other Japanese-Americans
and their immigrant parents, nothing would ever be quite the
same.
The months between the start of the war and the evacuation
to the internment camps were sad, frightening, and uncomprehending
months. Georgette described her loneliness as she was subjected
to the taunts and name-calling of her classmates. "I
asked myself how people could change overnight from friendly
to hateful." To this day she remembers one friend who
didn't desert her, as well as a history teacher who reminded
her classmates that this one small girl didn't start the war.
Georgette and her family were interned at the Tulelake, California
camp where she worked in the Base Hospital. "At the barracks
there were canvas cots, knot holes in the walls, no grass,
no flowers, no trees, just sand." Families were assigned
to rooms according to the number of members in the family.
Constructive activities were organized for the youths to enjoy
life, even under these conditions. At a "jam session"
Georgette danced with Tom Yoshikai, of Salem [Willamette University
Class of 1955], who was at the same detention camp. Tom was
moved to Heart Mountain, Wyoming and was soon drafted into
the Army.
Georgette began a career and twenty years later she would
meet her "jitterbug" friend at a dinner at her boss'
home. A whirlwind courtship, engagement, and marriage followed.
For the past forty years, they have made their home in Salem
where they raised their daughter, Vickie, also a graduate
of Willamette University.
Retired now, both Georgette and Tom are active in the United
Methodist Church, both being Lay Members of the Oregon-Idaho
Annual Conference. She loves gardening, hopes to get back
to her painting and tracing her genealogy, and is busy with
the welfare of children, shut-ins, and the sick.
Reflecting on her experience during the war, Georgette says,
"It would be a shame if we do not teach the students
of today about our past history, of what happened. We cheat
the leaders of tomorrow if they do not know the dark history
of the past. There is always the danger of history repeating
itself."
Written by Virginia Green
Bibliography:
This profile based on interviews with Georgette Yoshikai.
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