<Begin Segment 17>

[Translated from Japanese]

KS: If you have any other stories or anything else you'd like to say about being at the Tule Lake internment camp?

TT: No, not really. It was just, we didn't have to work, but we could eat. It was a very easy life.

KS: So it was easier than when you were living in Los Angeles?

TT: Yes, that's right. Well, you didn't have to work, but you could always eat. You didn't have anything to worry about. It's just you couldn't go outside, and you didn't have any freedom. But other than that, you didn't have any worries. You always had food to eat, and you didn't have to pay the rent.

AI: [To Ken] Does she have any advice for young people?

KS: [To Tomiye] Do you have anything you'd like to say to the young people on this pilgrimage?

TT: Well, for young people... back then the Issei had a horrible life. One of my distant relatives was a farmer in El Monte. They would get up very early, and pick green onions. For one bunch, they couldn't even sell it for one cent, so they'd have to throw it away. How much are green onions nowadays? One bunch is twenty dollars -- it costs about twenty. They had such a hard life. They would break their backs and pick the green onions. And how many are in one bunch? They couldn't even sell it for one cent. They couldn't sell it for one cent, so they'd throw it away. Do people nowadays even know about that? I don't think anybody even knows that. That's why I think young people should learn a little more about the past and appreciate their lifestyle nowadays, and make the best of it.

KS: You are right. Well, I think that's it, so thank you very much.

TT: You're welcome. I don't think there are very many people who know about that, right? They haven't even met someone from the countryside.

KS: True.

TT: That's how it was back then. The Issei had a hard life. They would get up so early, even though it was so cold. They put onions, carrots in one bunch, but they couldn't sell it for even one cent, so they'd throw it away.

KS: And your relatives did that also?

TT: Yes. My distant relative was a farmer in El Monte. And sometimes I visited them, and I felt very sorry for them.

KS: I understand. Thank you so much.

AI: Thank you so much.

<End Segment 17> - Copyright © 2000 Densho. All Rights Reserved.