<Begin Segment 17>

[Translated from Japanese]

TY: Speaking of your children, it must have been difficult with children of various ages. I mean packing for them. Each child must have needed different things.

YI: That's right.

TY: You had seven children of various ages. Did you have to carry a lot of diapers?

YI: Toward the end, when we moved to Texas, they gave us diapers. Paper diapers.

TY: But you didn't know that before you left.

YI: I didn't know.

TY: Also, what kinds of things did you have to leave behind, that your children wanted to take with them?

YI: Well, let me see. My children wanted only small toys.

TY: I heard a story that a family had to leave a pet behind.

YI: That's right. You could not take your pets with you.

TY: Also you could not take the piano with you and had to leave it behind. By the way, when was the first time you were contacted by your husband after his arrest?

YI: Let me see. I wonder when it was. We were already in Idaho at that time. We went to Puyallup... was that in May that we went to Puyallup? We didn't stay in Puyallup for too long. We were already in Idaho by the next Spring.

TY: I heard it was several months.

YI: Yes, it was probably for three or four months.

TY: Weren't you contacted by your husband before you went to Idaho?

YI: What?

TY: Contact with your husband. Before you went to Idaho?

YI: No, we couldn't contact him until then.

TY: You must have been worried.

YI: Yes, in a way. But there were many other Japanese people with him.

TY: Other husbands?

YI: Yes. Besides, we heard a lot of things.

TY: What kinds of things did you hear?

YI: All those taken had a church of their own, ate together and did craft work as well. In Idaho, too, there were native trees which people polished and made various things from.

TY: You had limited things available.

YI: We had a celebration for Buddha's birthday called "Flower Festival." We had a special service. The other day I read an article written by a minister. It said that he wanted to celebrate "Flower Festival" on Buddha's birthday but there was no Buddha statue at the camp, and that some skilled person carved a Buddha statue out of a carrot. [Laughs]

TY: A carrot. [Laughs]

YI: He carved very well with a knife.

TY: Out of a carrot. [Laughs]

YI: Carrot Buddha.

TY: So they celebrated with the carrot Buddha.

YI: Because there was no statue.

<End Segment 17> - Copyright © 1999 Densho. All Rights Reserved.