Lily Myoko [Annotator’s Note: her maiden name was given but was not audible] Sawada was born on 28 September 1927 in Los Angeles, California. The family left Los Angeles shortly after she was born. They moved to Downey outside of Los Angeles. Sawada’s father raised flowers. The family move was initiated so that he would have a larger parcel of land to cultivate his flowers. Sawada’s brothers and sisters went to high school in Downey. Sawada attended grammar school in that same town. After four years, the family moved to Anaheim as a result of receiving help from their church. Their housing was rent free and already furnished. The children finished their high school education in Anaheim. Her brother and sister went off to college. Although she did not know the date that her father entered the United States, Sawada knew that her mother came to America in 1889. Her father had previously earned his living in Japan as a fisherman. He was a smart and industrious individual. He managed to voyage to his new country despite the fact that he had no money. When he approached the United States, he jumped ship because he had no papers. He was concerned that he would not be granted entry. He swam to shore and started in the new environment. Her father became involved with her mother’s church. He saw the need for her mother and married her. He originally sold fish in his store. Sawada was living in Anaheim when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. The family knew that something bad was going to happen [Annotator’s Note: Japanese-Americans on the west coast of the United States were caught up in a paranoia concerning potential expatriate subversion.]. Announcements began to arrive at their home [Annotator’s Note: no details on the content of these notifications are given at this time.]. Sawada had visited Japan one time in 1933 as a very young girl. The visit resulted from her mother having some problems and then returning to her relatives with some of her children. There were problems adjusting to the changes in life style so Sawada’s mother returned to the United States. They had been away for a year or two. Sawada was five years of age at the time. Before leaving Japan, Sawada had a chance to get acquainted with her mother’s family. Her uncle ran a community bath tub business which was a successful operation. Most individuals in Japan did not own private baths and had to utilize a community bath instead. The children were amused with that idea. They returned to the United States shortly thereafter.

Lily Sawada was 14 years old and in high school when the attack on Pearl Harbor occurred. The school was very sympathetic toward her. Although it was just March [Annotator’s Note: 1942] and the school year was not complete, she would be given credit for her work that semester. Bad changes started happening soon after the Pearl Harbor attack [Annotator’s Note: Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Empire of Japan on 7 December 1941.]. Announcements concerning limitations and prohibitions for her community were initiated. Anything that could be construed as being dangerous was confiscated. Sawada’s six dollar camera was taken from her as a result. She had bought it with her pennies. The family had no other items taken away except possibly some kitchen knives. More notifications concerning restrictions on travel and other things were issued. A fear of their neighbors evolved. Those individuals could get ugly with the Sawadas. Her younger brother was attacked by another child but it was likely just a childish thing. There were few neighbors in the area where the Sawadas lived. They were in a small Japanese community. Many of their previous activities had to be curtailed. The family recognized that things were going to get worse. Her father did not have trouble as far as she can remember. He just kept growing his flowers on his ten acres, but she did not know how he got his products to market. The family could only travel through the neighborhood and not much further. No one knew what was going to happen to them. They could only worry about the future. The Sawadas only had two neighbors so they could not learn much about outside events. Soon there was an announcement for them to pack up whatever they could carry. They were going to be leaving. They would lose anything that was not transportable by hand. The Sawadas did what they were told. They were very poor and had few possessions. There was a car to transport the flowers but they owned little else but the ten cultivated acres. Their home was rent free and furnished so they had little to bring with them. They had faith that God would take care of them. The parents and children carried everything they could and the local church stored the remaining furniture and other items in the basement. The Sawadas never recovered their stored items. They left from the train station in Anaheim and did not know where they were going. They felt they could not influence the situation. They merely did what they were told.

Lily Sawada and her family arrived in Poston, Arizona [Annotator’s Note: this was part of the relocation of Japanese-Americans from the west coast of the United States following the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. Japanese-Americans in that portion of the country were caught up in a paranoia concerning potential expatriate subversion.]. Poston was in the desert on the other side of California. There was another camp on the California side of the desert. The family lined up to be inoculated after their arrival. They were then assigned to a barrack. Each barrack was divided into four areas. A family of six or less would inhabit one of the four areas. The Sawadas were fatigued [Annotator’s Note: after the train trip from Anaheim, California near their home in Downey] and entered their barrack apartment. There were six cots and no other furnishings. There was no mattress for each cot, but there were six bags and a stack of pine straw to stuff into the bags to create an ersatz mattress. It was May [Annotator’s Note: 1942] so it was not cold and probably did not have even warrant retrieval of blankets out of the family’s packed items [Annotator’s Note: the family brought only the items that they could hand carry with them.]. Living conditions at Poston were sparse. There was an opening between barracks to prevent fires from spreading. Sawada’s father was a clever man despite his limited education. He, along with others who worked together, took the scrap wood from construction of the barracks that could be found in between the barracks and built furniture, room dividers, and other items. Her father enjoyed building those items. With no indoor plumbing, there was only a sink outside the barracks so the people got together and mail-ordered pipe and other items to plumb a sink inside. A mail-order catalogue was available to the other internees. The Sawadas were too poor to be able to order anything but others in the compound could. There were also a few things to buy in the store on site. Carpentry items could be obtained. The camp guards were on the extreme edge of the compound, but young Sawada never saw them because of the large size of the enclosure. She never ventured near the edge. Some did try to get to the fence or attempt to escape. Some were shot as a result, but little was known about any of those incidents. The family knew the fence was there, and that they should leave it alone. They did find friends from California in the compound. They had a good time finding them. As a teenager, the experience was an adventure for her. She attended school in Poston. The only work was in the dining room. People who previously had been involved in professional cooking were hired by the government to prepare the meals. Sawada had enjoyable food and was never hungry while in the camp. There was always a lot of food. The cooks could do whatever they wanted with the food that was given to them. Some people had chocolate cakes while others had beer. Young Sawada found that she was eating better as an internee than she was prior when her family was very poor and could afford little in the way of special food. Food in California was very fresh. There was nothing canned. She did not approve of the canned spinach at Poston. There were Caucasian teachers, as well as, anyone in the camp who had some college education. The instructors were paid 40 cents per hour. Her sister taught second grade. Sawada’s geometry teacher was Japanese and supposed to be brilliant. She never did learn much from him. The family was in the camp for a year and a half. A school was built after the first year. It was built out of adobe by people who had no other work to do. The new school encompassed all classes in one location. Previously, the students had to travel various locations to study different subjects. There was little in the way of entertainment. The church provided their entertainment. Little was known about the war because she did not care to be informed about it. She experienced few hardships in Poston. There was medical and dental care available to the internees. Ample food was provided, but individuals had to remain in the camp for a year and a half. After that, the internee was allowed to exit the camp if they could make their own arrangements and pay their own way. The specific limitation was that the individual had to relocate east and not west of the camp. Sawada cannot recollect anyone coming to the camp to interrogate them concerning their beliefs. There may have been some occasion where things got tense from an incident involving the authorities being questioned. The family remained inside their barrack and did not venture out. Being in the center of the camp, the Sawadas were somewhat insulated from events near the fence which was a mile away. The camp was a mile wide and a mile long. The family could not return to California after leaving Poston. That was why they ended up in Chicago.

Lily Sawada had a very innovative father. He determined that it was time to leave [Annotator’s Note: the Japanese-Americans at internment the camp in Poston, Arizona were allowed to relocate to the east of the camp after a year and a half of being there.]. Sawada’s sisters had already left the camp on scholarships for college obtained from their former church. Both of them went to the church school in Kentucky as a result. They attended Asbury College there. The rest of the family was assisted by the Quaker church. They helped sponsor and help the internees who wanted to exit the camps. Sawada’s father decided to go to Chicago because of the booming war production efforts found there. There were many available jobs as a result. He left Poston first and found a job and a house for the family. He then told the family to follow him. They left Poston for Chicago in January [Annotator’s Note: 1944] and it was very cold on the trip. It was the first time they had ever seen snow. Her father had found a job in a factory that manufactured camouflage tents. It was part of the war effort. Young Sawada enrolled in an inner city school. It was awful but she went for a time. She later finished school in another location that was an improvement. It was a bad situation in that first location. The family found a better place to live and be educated. She was in the Chicago area when the war ended. When the atomic bombs were dropped, the newspaper carried the news. Although she was sorry people were hurt, there was nothing she could do about it. It was a military matter and far away. When Sawada and her husband went to Hiroshima as missionaries much later, they were questioned by the local people about why the Americans bombed the city. They were looked upon as Americans by the Japanese local population. Sawada loved California. She thinks of it affectionately. She never returned to live there. She only went to visit her relatives and see the old locations. Her two daughters returned to live in California, as did her younger brother. She never went back. Her older brother became a preacher and moved to Seattle.

Lily Sawada and her husband devoted their lives to the church as missionaries. She did not know her future husband until after their college graduation. It was at that time that the Methodist church put out a notice that they were seeking 50 undergraduates just out of college to teach English in Japan. They were to staff the church mission schools. The church was attempting to replace their representatives who had left Japan as a result of the war. They were looking for temporary help until they could locate permanent individuals for those positions. That was when she met her future husband since their colleges were far apart. Mobile is nowhere near Chicago. After the three year assignments, some couples got married and stayed in Japan. Sawada and her future husband returned to the United States were married. They then returned to Japan as missionaries. She had gone to Japan as a child so she went to the country of her parent’s origin three times. Her life has been a wonderful experience. God has watched over her and taken care of things. She has no regrets about those experiences. She had no control over events at 14 years of age. She harbors no animosity toward the country for the internment. People did what they could to live their lives as normally as possible. They did not suffer. They were fed well. Life was meager, but they did the best they could. They did not try to escape. Their next door neighbor was an old man who could not adjust. He tried to leave. He died in the desert because it was impossible to survive there. That was the only case she knew of involving a death.