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AI: Well, now then eventually, what happened? Then, you were in Tule Lake from May of '42 through 1943. And then you were transferred?

MW: To Heart Mountain. I don't remember exactly when that happened, but it might have been the spring of '44. It seemed like it was the early part of the year. I know it wasn't the wintertime. And after that move, Heart Mountain is really a blank to me. I don't remember if I worked or what happened. I know my father left camp and worked somewhere in Wyoming. And he came back and then left again, and that went on for a couple months. And then we decided that we would leave.

AI: And were you told that you could leave, or how did that come about?

MW: Yeah, that was during the time that they were trying to shove everybody out. They -- in fact, they were encouraging people to leave when we were still in Tule Lake, as long as we didn't return to the restricted zone. But we, we decided to leave. My father knew he would have employment if he came back, came to Spokane.

AI: And how did he know that?

MW: Because he knew he had seniority with the railroad. That he would, he didn't lose his seniority. He lost his job status, but he didn't lose his seniority.

AI: Which, do you know which company that was?

MW: That was the Great Northern.

AI: So what steps did you have to take to leave the camp?

MW: Well, I was elected to leave, come to Spokane and find a house. And then as soon as I found a house, the rest of the family would come out. And so I came out and...

AI: How did you leave? How did you leave camp?

MW: I left, took a bus to Cody, and up to Great Falls. And I took a train from Great Falls, came to Spokane.

AI: Did you do it by yourself?

MW: Uh-huh. But at that time, there was another girl leaving the same time. She was coming to Spokane. So there was actually two of us traveling together.

AI: What kind of reaction did you get? Did you have any troubles on your way?

MW: No. But we stayed pretty close to ourselves on the train. And then when I got to Spokane, her friends picked her up, and then they dropped me off at a hotel. So we had someone to meet us when we got here.

AI: What did you do then?

MW: I met a Japanese man in the hotel that, I met him at the restaurant I went to eat. And he, I was talking, and he told me there was a man, a Japanese man that had a house for rent. And so I went out and looked at it, and it was a big house. It had three bedrooms. So I made agreement, and we rented, I rented the house. And then a couple months later, my family came out.

AI: And then what were you doing in the meantime? Were you able to find work?

MW: Yeah. I found work in the restaurant where I went to eat. [Laughs] So I worked there 'til my family came out.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2000 Densho. All Rights Reserved.