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AI: Now, you had been going to high school before you were forced to leave. What happened about your schooling? Were you able to finish high school?

MW: I finished. I had two credits and I finished those.

AI: And so you did receive your diploma?

MW: I did, uh-huh. And when I applied for a civil service job, I filled out my application and they asked where my transcripts were. And I told them the Department of Interior, Washington, D.C., under WRA. And she, they called me back and asked me if I read the question correctly. [Laughs] And I told them how it happened, and evidently, they must have gotten them.

AI: So you finished up your high school, and then what did you do next while you were in Tule Lake?

MW: Well, for a while I think I just helped my mom watch the kids and do the odds and end chores that I had to do. And then later I got a job as a block mother.

AI: Tell me about that. What was block mother?

MW: Well, when the new babies were born, the mothers had no way in their apartments to sterilize bottles or sterilize water, and so that was my job, to sterilize bottles, boil water, fill them, and then replace them. The mothers would come in and exchange their empty bottles for bottles of sterile water so they could mix formula or give their babies water. And baby food and things would be delivered to the mess hall, and then the mothers would pick 'em up there.

AI: So you had like a little station or office there at...?

MW: Got in the mess hall in-between shifts, and did this, and then I took it to, I believe it's either the recreation or the laundry room, where the mothers came and picked up their stuff.

AI: Now, how did this come about? Was this a paid job that you had?

MW: Yeah. I made $12 a month. [Laughs] And I worked at that for a while. And I can't remember working after we went to Heart Mountain. Heart Mountain is a blank.

AI: Well, tell me a little bit more about Tule Lake. What were your mother and father doing at that time?

MW: My mother worked in the mess hall, and... can't remember what my father did. I know he wasn't out on the farm.

AI: You mentioned earlier that your mother started speaking a lot of Japanese while she was in camp.

MW: She did.

AI: And what about your father?

MW: He did too, yeah. And at home, they spoke Japanese between themselves. But it was, when they were speaking to us, the children, that it was English until we were all well set in school. And then it went back to speaking Japanese.

AI: What kind of effect did you think, did camp have on your parents? You were still young, but you were living so closely together with your whole family. How did that affect them?

MW: In camp or after camp?

AI: In camp.

MW: In camp? I don't know. My father changed to a kind of a withdrawn man, and my mother kept busy. She had the children and things to do, so I didn't notice much of a change in her.

AI: And what about your brothers? What were they up to?

MW: Well, they went to school, and they were the mischievous kids that kids will be. [Laughs]

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2000 Densho. All Rights Reserved.