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AI: Well, I'd like to ask you also about the early part, that, your early days in Minidoka. You were there for really only a short time, and then you signed up to go out and do farm labor.

TI: Yeah.

AI: And I, I had a --

TI: Actually when they asked for volunteers to the sugar beet farm, I was first to say, "Okay." [Laughs] I was ready to go.

AI: That was September 17th, that -- and let me ask you to read this short excerpt from your diary.

TI: This was September 17, 1942. "I signed up to go to sugar beet picking with Kanaya, Sakakibara, Fujihara. Portland-only dance after Seattle-only. Worst dust storm so far, cooler yet. Stove brought in. Table added to room." Table. We had scrap lumber. "Worst dust storm so far." [Laughs] There was going to be many more.

So I got a group of friends from Portland church to go sugar beet topping. And so we went together, six of us. We lived in (a shack), and cooked our own meat, took turns. I remember one day -- in order to get the food, you had to go to town and get a ride from the owner. And we ended up having, just had ketchup and these little macaroni noodles. So we had a great dinner, cooking just those two for our main meal. And so, so we suffered, and didn't have much to eat, cold. One time I still remember was in November, it was snowing all the time, and it was cold. And the beet tops were just frozen to the ground, but the owner told us to get out there and still work. So like obedient workers, we went out there. And it got so impossible, that finally the owner said we could quit.

One incident I remember, I went to Filer, I believe, was the town, very small town, couple blocks long as far as sidewalk goes. As soon as I got into town, I ran a block up and down, the hard concrete sidewalk. I missed that sidewalk in that short time being incarcerated, or rolling on the grass. There was a small lawn there. We had no grass, of course, in the camp. That really taught me that even though it was a short duration, (through) deprivation, (you can miss) simple things you miss. You don't appreciate till you miss it. And later on in life when I used to volunteer to meet with the minority inmates in Monroe Reformatory, (and) I could understand being locked up and not seeing the valley or the scenery. I could relate to that.

AI: Well, to get a, more of a flavor of that period, that fall of 1942 when you were doing the farm labor, I wanted to ask you to tell me a little bit more about sugar beet topping and then ask you to read this excerpt.

TI: Yes. All right.

AI: When you say "sugar beet topping," what does that involve?

TI: Well, the sugar beet's, literally, that big and heavy. And there's a hook against the knife. You hit it, pull it, and top it. Well, I, one time I went whack, and I clobbered my knee. [Laughs]

AI: Ow.

TI: So I was hurting a little bit for a while. So it's dangerous, you know, if you don't do it right, which I didn't. You had to work real fast, continue to work fast to cut it and top it and keep going. You have to pull it out of the ground with that hook. So you gotta whack, and pull it, and whack and cut the, top the top.

AI: And you were not really a farm boy.

TI: Oh, no, not at all.

AI: You had done summer berry picking, but...

TI: Yeah, but I was a little lightweight -- so I wasn't really a strong kind of person. So that was hard on me physically, but kept at it, regardless. We were just stiff as a board, after each night, but went right back out there again.

AI: Let me ask you to read this.

TI: Yes. This was October 3, 1942. "Today we picked eight carloads of sugar beets. Across the field, we found some Niseis from the Manzanar camp picking sugar beets. We got home that night at 6:15 from work, cooked, gave our bodies a nice scrubbing, and changed our clothes, washed dishes. That night we all went to Rupert, Idaho, and saw, It Happened in Flat Bush, with Lloyd Nolan and Overland Deadwood. I sure was self-conscious in the theater. We couldn't find a place to eat, so we bought a fifty-cent pop and four loaves of bread, food that night."

AI: Now, when you say that you couldn't find a place to eat, you were in a town.

TI: Yeah.

AI: How come you couldn't...?

TI: Somehow we felt we weren't wanted, and so we just -- you could see the people's face looking at us. We were very sensitive. How they were seeing us, really as "Japs." So we took the easy way out rather than confronting it. Later I did confront, but at the time I didn't, and we took simply a bread and milk home, and that's what we had to eat. So it was a trying time, but we were together and suffered together and be able to manage it. And I didn't feel any sense of anger or shame or what-have-you of how we were living in the, what cramped quarters we had. We just took it. We accepted it. So, and I felt in reflection, we were better for it 'cause having anger and resentment and complain, we (would have) just destroyed ourselves.

AI: So you stayed active. You were part of a work team, a work crew...

TI: Yeah.

AI: ...that went out.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2000 Densho. All Rights Reserved.