Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Tsuguo "Ike" Ikeda Interview I
Narrator: Tsuguo "Ike" Ikeda
Interviewer: Alice Ito
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: September 27, 2000
Densho ID: denshovh-itsuguo-01-0014

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AI: Let's turn to Camp Minidoka now. This was a permanent War Relocation Authority camp located in Idaho. And it was in September of 1942 that you and your family left the assembly center in North Portland and went to Idaho. Do you recall anything about the trip itself?

TI: Yes. It was an old train, and we had to keep the shades down. It was hot. And it was a long trip, so we were really exhausted. And it was very late at night when we finally arrived at Minidoka, and strange place. They had some lights up, and people were helping us to get to the block, (our new residence), block 31-11E. It was our cabin unit. And oh, gee, it was a shock that you're just so tired, you didn't know where you were, and try and get the mattress filled with straw, initially, and sleep on it. And the place was dusty all the time. They used green lumber to build these barracks, and it shrunk in the heat of the Idaho sun. And so the dust went through (the walls) all the time. So having to live with that dusty, windy place, oh it made it lot tougher, (living in Idaho). You didn't know where you were 'cause it was so dark. And we found our barrack, and through our exhaustion we just slept.

AI: Let me ask you to read again from your diary.

TI: This is September 10, 1942. "My family and myself arrived in Minidoka 8:30 p.m., tired, hungry, with many problems and worries. Didn't meet anybody yet. I still can feel the rocking of the train. Met a lot of old friends who were busboys in North Portland WCCA who were now temporary cooks or assistants. After dinner in Mess 31, which I ate in a hurry, I went with Hank and Tosh to a dance sponsored by the Portland group. Old friends there. Had a tough time finding my way back to my barrack with no lights." So it was, right away, I loved to dance. And so we (were), fortunately there was a welcome get-together put on by fellow Portland people, and that was enjoyable, comforting in a strange place to be with friends even though it was a little bit rough.

AI: Well, in (August) 1942, you would have been eighteen years old.

TI: Yeah.

AI: So you were at a time when normally, an older teenager, you would have been socializing. You would have been finishing up your senior year in high school, but your senior year in high school was interrupted, and you never graduated from Lincoln High School. Instead you went to the assembly camp, assembly center, and then here you were in Minidoka.

TI: Yeah. It was quite a unique experience. We established a high school with class colors, song, you know, all the trimmings as though you were in a regular high school, except in a camp. And so again, opportunity to be involved really appealed to me. I just loved it. And I remember one classroom, English teacher was talking about democracy, and we really booed her. She never talked about democracy again, because we weren't being treated like persons who lived in a democracy. But it was cold, and you had to walk such distance in the cold and slush. But that was all part of living like a pioneer in a way. And we had very little equipment, so our science classes were a farce. We used the tubs in the washroom. And I don't know what we actually ended up doing, but we didn't have much textbooks either. So, somehow we graduated. [Laughs]

AI: Well, now tell me more about this teacher who was speaking about democracy and your reaction. I'm surprised that, to hear that you say that she was booed because in so many ways, you and the other Nisei were very polite, very...

TI: Yes.

AI: ...obedient. Tell me about that incident.

TI: Well, I think down deep we felt embittered. So when she was putting up this farce that this was a democracy, it was just too much, and it was a spontaneous reaction. It's unusual reaction when Niseis do -- at that time, to be saying such a negative thing back to the teacher, which usually we respected. But I know that after that, she never raised that issue of democratic country or democratic values. So underneath myself, my regimented attitude, behavior, I was still willing to let the persons know how I felt and others felt.

AI: Yes. So even though you, your behavior was perhaps following the rules and toeing the line, you still had -- you were thinking within yourselves?

TI: Yeah. And I felt comfort that everybody else was with me too. [Laughs] We were being disobedient together for a good reason. And that forewarned me in the future how I behaved, but anyway, I was learning.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2000 Densho. All Rights Reserved.