<Begin Segment 64>

TY: [Jpn.] Then you left Hideo behind, and six of you moved, didn't you? Right. Then, what kind of things do you remember about the journey to Heart Mountain? You moved to Heart Mountain from Tule Lake. From Tule Lake.

MK: [Jpn.] Yeah.

TY: [Jpn.] Well, what do you remember? I suppose you traveled by train...

MK: [Jpn.] What do I remember... oh, sagebrush...

TY: [Jpn.] Yes.

MK: [Jpn.] That is everywhere. If you go there. Besides, even if we lived there, we didn't enter such areas. Those places... I mean sagebrush... we didn't go to an area with sagebrush. Yeah.

TY: [Jpn.] Then...

MK: [Jpn.] Only children would go there.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] Children would go to an area like that. Sagebrush, but you can make a lot of things from sagebrush. Small objects. What did they make from sagebrush? You can make anything from those. That thing for flower arrangement. They made a base. They made various things. People who liked doing that made those.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] Yeah. So you shouldn't ignore sagebrushes because you can make a lot of nice things from them.

TY: [Jpn.] I see. All you need is creativity.

MK: [Jpn.] Uh-huh. There were many people with many experiences.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] So no matter what kind of place they are in, they make something out of it. Uh-huh.

TY: [Jpn.] By the way, when you were at Tule Lake, you were notified that you would have to move there. Did you know where you were moving? Did you know you were moving to Wyoming?

MK: [Jpn.] No.

TY: [Jpn.] You didn't know yet.

MK: [Jpn.] We didn't know at all. Uh-huh.

TY: [Jpn.] Then you traveled again by train with closed blinds...

MK: [Jpn.] We found out only after we arrived.

TY: [Jpn.] Well, then what...

MK: [Jpn.] Before we came...

TY: [Jpn.] Yes.

MK: [Jpn.] Where do you want to go...

TY: [Jpn.] Yes.

MK: [Jpn.] They first asked us.

TY: [Jpn.] Yes.

MK: [Jpn.] And a paper is handed out.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] You write down where you want to go.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] Of course, it is not impossible. We wrote down, but...

TY: [Jpn.] Yes.

MK: [Jpn.] Well, I ended up there. I don't know why.

TY: [Jpn.] Then did you write down "Minidoka?"

MK: [Jpn.] No. No.

TY: [Jpn.] Where the Arakis are.

MK: [Jpn.] Oh, yeah. That Minidoka. In order for us to go there...

TY: [Jpn.] Yes.

MK: [Jpn.] We only wrote down that place because we wanted to join the Arakis. I wrote down that place from the beginning, but I ended up at Tule Lake. And till the end I couldn't go where the Arakis were. I don't know why, but I was sent somewhere else.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] Yeah.

TY: [Jpn.] Then on the way there, did you have your curtains closed, windows closed?

MK: [Jpn.] No. That didn't happen.

TY: [Jpn.] So this time the windows were open?

MK: [Jpn.] They didn't do that again.

TY: [Jpn.] I see. Then it was only when you left Seattle... upon arriving in Wyoming...

MK: [Eng.] Uh-huh.

TY: [Jpn.] But, oh, excuse me...

MK: [Jpn.] Yes?

TY: [Jpn.] While you lived at Tule Lake, didn't you acquire more things? When you lived there for one year, you acquired more things, didn't you?

MK: [Jpn.] Do you mean damaged?

TY: [Jpn.] No, more possessions. You got more things. The household things.

MK: [Jpn.] No, we didn't have any more.

TY: [Jpn.] Oh.

MK: [Jpn.] That's because if you have to sew clothes, you don't get more. Children wear out clothes. We hardly had any more than before. If you ask about having more things... I am sure there were people who had more things and needed help.

TY: [Jpn.] Yeah.

MK: [Jpn.] Yeah. But the government delivered those things to your home. They did deliver. So you didn't have to worry.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] Uh-huh. Yeah... so a little... but if you had a big furniture, then I don't know.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] Otherwise, they did everything for you.

<End Segment 64> - Copyright © 2000 Densho. All Rights Reserved.