Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Asano Terao Interview II
Narrator: Asano Terao
Interviewers: Tomoyo Yamada (primary), Dee Goto (secondary)
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: May 26, 1998
Densho ID: denshovh-tasano-02-0013

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[Translated from Japanese]

TY: Did you need another permit to enter the internment camp? Or, could you just enter with the same permit that you used to leave Salt Lake City?

AT: Oh, um, when I went to visit?

TY: Yes.

AT: Yeah, that's right.

TY: Just one permit.

AT: I just showed it. Then, there was an office, so I showed it and said, "I want to visit the camp for such and such reason. So I came." I said, "I am going to so and so places, and I am going to the older brother of my husband." They said, "All right." I was asked how long I was staying, so I said, "Oh, probably for three days or so." Then, meals were, for three days, meals were served everyday. It was because I was sitting to eat with the brother and others.

TY: So, how did you find out that you could visit the camp?

AT: It wasn't the matter of how. I said that I was going to visit the camp, and I got this card to go visit the camp. I got it here.

TY: Did you get it at Salt Lake City?

AT: Yeah. At Salt Lake City. In Seattle, that was, where did I get it? Japanese's, Japanese, because I had already evacuated, I went to the City Hall and got it. That's right. I got it from the City Hall. When I said that I wanted to visit the camp for such and such reason, Japanese, and hakujin, and the commit person [Ed. note: Mrs. Terao said the word "commit" in English.] were there, and they said, "All right," and signed it right away.

TY: That was before you evacuated to Salt Lake.

AT: Even after I evacuated to Salt Lake, this time, if I evacuated from Salt Laki, I was leaving from Salt Laki in that case, right? In Salt Laki, there was an office there, too, so I said that I was going to visit the camp, and I had them issue one there. I had them stamp it, instead of stamping, I had them sign it.

TY: At the Japanese Consulate.

AT: There was a Japanese Consulate, but even if I didn't go there, at the end, they just did it at a small office. There were many people who were visiting the camp, so...

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.