<Begin Segment 12>

[Translated from Japanese]

AT: So, from Salt Lake to the camp, I went to visit there twice. From there, because I was going from there, I said that I was going to the camp.

TY: Then, you got the permit again.

AT: They issued it for me. They issued it, and I went to the camp. Then, I showed it on the train, too. Then, the conductor kindly told me that I needed to get off at so and so station in Idaho. Then, from there, they came to pick me up by car, and we drove there. I stayed there for three or four nights and came back.

TY: When you went there twice, you stayed there for a week each. Was it, Terao's, your husband's brother's...

AT: Yeah, he was running a hotel, and it couldn't be helped forever, so he ran it until the end of the month and hurried out right after. To the camp. Then, he was in the camp, the older brother was by himself because his wife had passed away. I suggested that we should stay in his room. The room was large, so we borrowed mattresses as many as we needed.

TY: Then, who was managing the hotel?

AT: The Tacoma Hotel.

TY: Yes.

AT: That was, he asked a hakujin to manage it. That was... for three years, I think. He had him manage it. He was the first one to return as soon as they could go back to Seattle. And, because his wife had passed away, he didn't want to run a hotel any more. He didn't do anything. Because he didn't have children. And, he sold the hotel to Mr. so and so.

TY: That was to a Japanese person.

AT: Yeah, it was Japanese. Then, he said that it would be sho gan ai [Ed. note: same as shikata ga nai; it cannot be helped] if he stayed there, so he said that he was going back to Japan with his wife's bones. He went back to Japan. It was because he didn't have children. He had a lot of money from selling the hotel, though. [Laughs] He took it with him.

TY: Was it right after the war? Or...

AT: Uh-uh. It was after the war ended.

TY: The American person, did he manage the hotel properly?

AT: That was hakujin. It was while he was in the camp. He was, the hakujin was a good hakujin. At the end of every month, he came to show him there was so much income and so much expenses.

TY: All.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.