Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Fumiko Uyeda Groves Interview
Narrator: Fumiko Uyeda Groves
Interviewer: Larry Hashima
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: June 16, 1998
Densho ID: denshovh-gfumiko-01-0025

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LH: So at this time, of course, you're -- you, your mother, and your brother -- they're in Minidoka. And your father, where is he at this time?

FG: My father after he left Seattle went to Bismarck, North Dakota, and I think he was there until maybe about... oh, I don't know, mid... I think, mid spring, maybe just before summer, all of spring and just before summer. And then --

LH: Of 1942?

FG: Yeah. And then he was transferred. He went to Arizona for a short time and then he went to Santa Fe for a short time. And then he ended up in Lordsburg, New Mexico, and then he was in Lordsburg until 1944.

LH: So did you have any contact with your father at all?

FG: We used to write to my father. My mother more than I did, [Laughs], but they used to exchange letters.

LH: And your father would write letters back to you?

FG: Yes. Uh-huh.

LH: What were some of the things that your father wrote back that you remember?

FG: He didn't write to me so much as he wrote to my mother.

LH: Did your mother ever share the letters with you though?

FG: Not really. A lot of it was censored, right, a lot of these holes in the letters. [Laughs] But oh, yeah. And then I think my father, there were times when he would write in English and I don't know why, but he did. But as I went through my father's records I found a lot of the letters and some of them are in Japanese. It depends, but there's a lot of deletions.

LH: Because of the censoring that took place.

FG: Yeah, right.

<End Segment 25> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.