<Begin Segment 72>

AI: You know, I had another kind of question I wanted to ask you. Because again, here in Minidoka, again, you had some activities that kept you busy, in some ways you have some good memories of school and playing as a kid, and you were busy applying for schools, but getting rejected, Mike was applying to go to college also, and you were working. But what was happening to your feelings about what was the larger picture? That the war was going on, here you were, stuck inside of camp, although you did have some privilege later on to go out, what was your thinking about what was happening to America, and yourselves as being part of this country? Of course, May, you weren't an American citizen, but still, what was your feeling about, and what the leadership was doing, and the government. What were your thoughts?

MY: We didn't have much news. I think that we must have been somewhat isolated from, because I remember, someone had a radio. Kind of a, radio that was either constructed, or... because radios were not permitted, in camp. But I remember there was someone who did have a, not a short-wave radio but just a ordinary radio that was, I don't know. Put together through a kit or something like that, and everybody hovering around the radio listening to what's going on. And it was very scratchy and --

JY: Was there some rule against radios or anything, in camp?

MY: Cameras...

JY: Were you allowed to have...?

MY: You were not allowed to have cameras or radios or weapons, of course.

TY: Yeah, we --

JY: I new cameras were not, but even radios were not allowed.

MY: Yeah.

JY: Hmm.

MY: And so I, it was kind of a huge event, when somebody had a radio. And then we had, kind of huddled around, and close all the doors and so forth. And we were listening to the news, and somebody said, "We're winning the war," or something, "We're losing --" I mean, I remember the conversation was, "Who's 'we'?"

JY: "Who's 'we'?" [Laughs]

MY: "Who's winning the war?"

TY: "What's the score?" [Laughs]

MY: Yeah.

JY: You don't even know which side you're on.

MY: I know. I remember that very distinctly. "We, who's 'we'?" "Is Japan winning?" There was, that, that part of it kind of stuck in my mind, the listening to the radio. But other than that, I don't think that we had newspapers.

JY: I don't think so.

TY: Well, they had --

MY: We had very litt-, unless we had news --

TY: -- the camp had newsletters.

MY: But that was about all the activities within --

TY: It's just superficial stuff, really. Nothing --

MY: Yeah. So I still have some copies of the newsletters.

TY: Oh, you do?

MY: They were, it was called the Irrigator.

TY: Oh, that's right. You're right.

MY: And so, but then it was all about goings-on, the dances, just, things that are going on in the camp, but very little awareness -- I think that it was kind of, quite deliberate, probably, about what's going on in the outside --

TY: Well, probably it was censored.

MY: Exactly. And so, unless you heard from the outside, news from your visitors, when Mr. Schwandt or these people came to visit, we just didn't have any news at all, from the outside. And maybe some more politically astute Niseis were able to keep in touch, go to Twin Falls and pick up newspapers if you're really interested, but I don't think that we, we were not very politically astute. I mean, we weren't very aware.

TY: Yeah, you might, I just don't remember.

MY: Yeah. And you know, we talked about being kind of protected and isolated.

JY: I think it was, I think we were more concerned about immediate things. The family and what was happening to Dad, and how, where are we going to, you guys are leaving.

MY: What's going to... yeah.

JY: Yeah.

MY: And whether or not you should go in the army or not go in the army, what's going to happen to Joe. That was one of the things that we worried about. And then, my mother, we talked about -- it was after I left camp that we talked about your going to Crystal City, to the camp, to the family camp. It was a family camp that was populated by Peruvian Japanese.

AI: But at this time, you were still all together.

MY: Yeah, we were all together. But we did talk about -- because we had a sense, my mother had a sense that the family was getting kind of scattered and dispersed if he leaves and all of us, we were leaving, waiting to go to school.

<End Segment 72> - Copyright © 2002 Densho. All Rights Reserved.