The Unquiet Nisei

Abstract

Nisei, including Sue’s family, suffered in silence for many years. In 1987, historian Richard Drinnon, in his biography of Dillon Myer, called Sue “an unquiet Nisei.”¹ Sue responded to his description. “Yes, I know he did, but for a long time I didn’t talk about the camps.” She described the first time she spoke about the camp to anyone outside the family, nearly twenty years after she had left Manzanar. When a Caucasian neighbor in 1961 had commented on the hot Santana winds typical in Southern California in the fall, Sue replied: “I hate the wind. It reminds me of Manzanar.” Her neighbor Ellen, who did know about the internment, expressed interest in Sue’s experience and later visited Manzanar with her. While the wind was constantly blowing hard, Ellen had been standing by the front entrance of the camp under the electric wires snapping in the wind. “It really scared me that the wires could snap off,” she told Sue. “I can imagine now why you hated the Santana.”