<Begin Segment 23>

AI: So when you showed up at the Puyallup Fairgrounds, what, what went through your mind?

MK: Well, I attended the fairgrounds before in a happier situation. But it was cluttered with a lot of barracks, and certainly it looked different. But I think it's being a child, I don't remember it being that devastating. I didn't feel the enormity of what we're being faced with. It just seems a little ignorant on my part. But I just didn't have that foresight or the feeling.

AI: So, when you were there at Puyallup, what was your living condition like for you and your family?

MK: Oh, definitely, just a barracks, and you know that it was pine lumber because as the days went by, the raw lumber would dry up and the knots would fall and then you have a peek-a-boo hole through the walls, and as you know, or as you've heard, the ceilings were not finished on the top so you can hear babies crying or arguments in the family. And that was one thing my mother often used to quiet us with the fights, sibling rivalry. And she would say, "Well, the neighbors will hear so don't behave that way." And this is typically Japanese, how others look at you, and so she used that.

AI: Well, now here you were, now the oldest of the kids since James was in Japan.

MK: Right.

AI: Did she... and you were the daughter.

MK: Right.

AI: So, did your mother expect you to act like an older sister, and were you supposed to be in charge of the boys and --

MK: Right, I was, uh-huh.

AI: Even at Puyallup where...

MK: Right, well, for the interpreting or filling out papers that came. It wasn't, as I remember, it wasn't bilingually written. So I helped her write the letters, because my brother Bob was twelve, and so he was still young. So, yes, I was, I kind of became the head of household.

AI: So that was quite a responsibility at age fourteen.

MK: But not even knowing that it was a responsibility. You just automatically did it. But, yes, that's what I was. I mean, being that my mother relied on, the Eng-, the language barrier, to overcome that, I had to help her.

AI: Well, is there anything that stands out in your mind that stands out about Puyallup at all? Anything that's vivid about that experience?

MK: Well, it's certainly not the camp that we knew, that we shared with my father. It was community eating, the latrines, and the showers. I mean, it was certainly a new experience. But then fortunately, it was only three months before Minidoka was ready for us, that, as you're just getting used to the situation, you're already hearing that we're gonna be moving to another place. So, I don't think it, we really had the time to really feel, you know, how bad things are, or whatever. Everybody was in the same boat, and I think that was (comforting), you know, if you please, that's about what it is. It's, everybody's in the same boat, so you can't complain. You know, you have to gaman, you know.

AI: So, earlier, when your father was taken away, there weren't as many people in that same situation. But at Puyallup, at least, there were many people in your same situation.

MK: In, a few, not too many, I mean, we never got together, those particular families, because, I think we were just staying very close to, with your immediate family and, again, we just didn't have the communication means like several phones. There's only one phone to a family, if you're lucky, you know, in those days. [Laughs] So...

<End Segment 23> - Copyright © 2003 Densho. All Rights Reserved.