Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Mitsuye May Yamada - Joe Yasutake - Tosh Yasutake Interview
Narrators: Mitsuye May Yamada, Joe Yasutake, Tosh Yasutake
Interviewers: Alice Ito (primary), Jeni Yamada (secondary)
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: October 8 & 9, 2002
Densho ID: denshovh-ymitsuye_g-01-0080

<Begin Segment 80>

AI: So then you returned to Minidoka and told your mother and Mike about the trip.

MY: Uh-huh, about the trip. Do you remember our talking about that when we came back?

JY: I was not even aware you'd gone there.

TY: You didn't even know we were gone, right?

JY: No.

MY: You were, you were out there playing --

JY: [Laughs] I don't know, but I --

TY: You were just playing out in the canal. You didn't care. [Laughs]

JY: Yeah, I really don't remember anything about that trip.

MY: You used to play under the barrack. Do you remember how hot it was, and under the -- there was a little space, kind of a crawl space under the barrack?

JY: Uh-huh. Yeah.

MY: It was coolest there.

JY: Uh-huh. 'Cause the wind would, what wind there was, would come --

MY: There would, the crawl space there was --

JY: That's where we played Monopoly a lot. [Laughs]

MY: Yeah, I used to -- that was where you played poker, too, I suppose. But I remember when I was looking for you, I was, went down and looked under the barrack to see if I can find you.

JY: Yeah, yeah. Actually, I hadn't thought about that, but that's true.

MY: Yeah, that, and then I realized that it was coolest down there. It was just very small space, actually --

JY: Well, we weren't very big. [Laughs]

MY: Well, any adult would not be able to stay, be able, you had to crawl under there. But the kids were under, they had discovered this space under the barrack, which was, on a hot day was very smart, 'cause it was very cool down there.

JY: Yeah, that's right.

MY: Uh-huh.

AI: So then, fairly quickly you said, then you were soon taking your physical and going -- then you went to Fort Douglas. And then on to Fort Shelby in Mississippi?

TY: Camp Shelby.

AI: Camp Shelby for basic training. And in the meantime, May, you were saying that you were writing --

MY: Yes, I wrote to him every, I mean, every single day I wrote to him.

TY: Thank you very much. [Laughs]

MY: [Laughs]

TY: Yeah, you did.

MY: Yeah.

TY: Thanks.

JY: Do you have all those letters still? Or just some of them?

TY: Well, I, no, I don't have -- unfortunately, I don't have hers. I have the letters that I had written to her.

MY: He has letters that he wrote --

JY: Oh, that's right. That's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

MY: -- because I saved them and send it back to him. But he didn't save any of my letters.

JY: Shame on him, huh? [Laughs]

TY: Sorry. I wish I had.

JY: Yeah.

TY: It would have been interesting.

MY: It would have been interesting to me, too, because that would really capture that.

TY: That would be a good chronological record of what all went on.

JY: Yeah.

MY: And really capture that period of the dispersion of the family, too. Because I think that was why I was writing to you.

<End Segment 80> - Copyright © 2002 Densho. All Rights Reserved.