<Begin Segment 16>

[Translated from Japanese]

DG: Did you help farming?

AT: No, because I wasn't a farmer.

DG: Your children? Even a little bit?

AT: They didn't. My children never farmed before because they always lived here.

DG: You lived at your cousin's, didn't you?

AT: No, because I didn't know how [to farm]. To begin with, because the set-up was okay. At my cousin's, three rooms were available on the second floor, so he said, "Oneesan, nothing good would happen if you took your kids and entered the camp, so you should come over here. You can manage to make living somehow," so we discussed with our children, then they said that we should go live at the Uncle Kazunori's. So we went, and three rooms were vacant on the second floor.

DG: Did you live at the cousin's for the whole five years?

AT: Hmm. Almost in Salt Laki, we went to Salt Laki.

DG: You went.

AT: Yeah.

TY: But, during the five years, didn't you live upstairs of the house of your cousin throughout the time?

AT: Uh-umm.

TY: Or, you rented a house in the middle...

AT: Because our children had schooling. There was a school from there, but it was far. And, in Salt Laki, there was one close by. Even if it was a little far, there was public transportation.

DG: When was it that you went to Salt Lake.

AT: We left for Salt Laki soon after we evacuated.

DG: So you didn't stay at your cousin's that long.

AT: Yeah, we didn't live there.

DG: A week, was it about a week?

AT: Because my cousin's family was farmer. We really didn't farm too much. There was a man called Mr. Hama who was running a dye work in Salt Laki. He was a friend of Terao since they were little. In the neighborhood. We had asked him to help us. Then, he was running a dye work shop underneath a big hotel, an apartment.

TY: Dye work? What's dye work?

AT: Cleaning.

TY: Cleaning.

AT: He was doing it. He was piling up this much. Because a good person started working there, so he didn't work so much. The man was. He was single. So, Terao went there to ask him a favor and said, "Well, if an apartment opens up, I want to come over here. If we stayed in the country, since we are not really helping farming, we will just be a burden instead. If we move in here, I think we can manage somehow." He asked him like this, then Mr. Hama said, "Oh, I'll go ahead and ask the apartment upstairs, then." He was running a cleaning shop downstairs. They were leasing some apartments upstairs. The owner was Japanese. We were told, "Well, it is the bottom floor and a little dim, but just move in here. If something better opens up, you can ask them to change the apartments." We said, "Oh, that sounds good." We also felt uneasy about staying at my cousin's. So we moved in there, and I think we stayed there for a month and a half. Then, a big room opened up upstairs, so we got the bedroom, and it came with a dining room and a bedroom. That place was open. That was the front side. We were told that the price would be a little higher, but we said, "Well, it's not the matter of price. We can manage somehow." So we moved in there.

TY: Did you pay the rent from your savings?

AT: From the bank here to the bank there.

TY: You transferred.

AT: We had changed it. And, during the five years, he wouldn't move to make even a penny. He wouldn't work. He was just playing around. So finally, I said, "Papa, the money won't stay big any more," then he just said, "Is that right?" So easy-going. [Laughs] And...

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.