The Long Haul

Four Japanese American boys, six to ten years old, stand in front of a barrack, dressed in Santa Claus costumes.
Celebrating Christmas in Amache, 1944. Courtesy of the Wada and Homma family collection, Densho.

Although I didn’t know anyone in the new school, Christmas was coming, and my new classroom in Mountain View had a tree! Since school would be closed for the holidays, we had a celebration, and at the end of it, we drew straws for the tree. I won!!

I had never won anything before and was excited that my family would have a tree for Christmas. But how was I going to get it “home”? I didn’t have friends at that school yet, and no one offered to help me.

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3 thoughts on “The Long Haul
    1. Joan – Thank you for your kind remarks. I totally agree with you that we must continue to perpetuate these oral histories.

      Happy Holidays to you and yours; let’s hope that 2023 will be better than 2022.

      Jun Dairiki

  1. Thanks for sharing your story! We all try to forget the “unpleasant” aspects of our history, but we should not and dare not!

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