<Begin Segment 20>

DG: And then ten of you got picked out?

BU: Yeah.

DG: Okay. And so who did this? Was Floyd Schmoe involved?

BU: Floyd Schmoe, Floyd Schmoe and Dr. O'Brien. Dr. O'Brien was a professor of sociology or anthropology, and Floyd Schmoe was a minister, Quaker minister.

DG: Okay. And so what did they tell you to do?

BU: They said, "You'll waste time going to camp."

DG: Well, that part, but as far as getting ready to go? So you just...

BU: No, we just got, we just got one hour or less to make up our mind.

DG: Oh, and so then they picked you up in a van or car?

BU: No, no.

DG: How did you go?

BU: We had to get there ourselves.

DG: Oh, get to Moscow yourself?

BU: No, no, no. We had to get to the railroad station.

DG: So how did you get there?

BU: On a train.

DG: No. To the railroad station, 'cause it was curfew, right?

BU: Yeah, curfew. My friend, talk about Yano, George Yano, the son who is my best friend, he took -- he is the only one that had a car so he took me to the railroad station after curfew.

DG: So did you, how did you go then? I mean...

BU: In a car.

DG: You weren't picked up?

BU: In his car after curfew and got picked up.

DG: So you didn't have to hide or anything?

BU: No, no, I didn't. Not there. But we had to hide after we got to Moscow. We went to a farmer's house.

DG: Okay. You got in the train and then you went to Moscow.

BU: Yeah.

DG: By, all ten of you.

BU: Yeah, yeah.

DG: Okay. And so what happened in the train?

BU: Nothing happened in the train. After we got to Moscow, that's when they refused us.

DG: Okay. So you got off the train and who met you?

BU: Well, one of their officials. Moscow.

DG: The Friends?

BU: No, University of Idaho official.

DG: Oh, okay. And then the --

BU: The Quakers are strong enough that they can make all this arrangements, and they told the Quaker that they're not accepting us.

DG: Okay. So you weren't accepted and so then you had to hide.

BU: You had to hide for ten days.

DG: So how did you do, how did you hide?

BU: Well, the different one, the two of the girls went to jail and got, stayed, stayed in jail for ten days.

DG: And that was better than other places? [Laughs]

BU: Well, they said that it takes too much work to look after two girls on a farm.

DG: Oh, and then the rest of you went to a farm.

BU: Yeah, each one of us went to a farm.

DG: A Quaker farm? Okay.

BU: Quaker farm, preferably.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.