The Reaction of People on our Return Home

Everything was new to us. We didn’t know how to act with white people. We didn’t know how to act, we didn’t know how we’d act with our relatives, friends. That all, that all had to come into consideration. And there was a lot of anxiety and not knowing what was on the other end of the rainbow. In a lot of cases there wasn’t a lot of, there was a lot of disappointment. Not on purpose, but 4 years, 3 ½ years is a long time. People change. They wanted to know what happened, what did the Japanese do to us. What, how can we punish the Japanese back? That was interviewing us and giving us the, I called it the third degree. By this time I had spent quite a time in a, three weeks in hospital, and I think I handled it quite well. Oh the weight had come back almost to a 135 pounds. It came back fast. And as soon as I got home, I was walking on a highway, just outside of Winnipeg, just on the outskirts, and a car came and picked me up. And he was, then known, he was the president of Norstar Oil, now known as Shell Oil. He was the president of Norstar Oil in Winnipeg. And he stopped his car in the middle of the road on the side. We had a long talk. He says, here’s my card, you want a job, any day of the week, come and see me. I did, but not until about four months later