<Begin Segment 26>

AI: Well, that was... and then in 1944 you mentioned that your, your younger sister had been born.

BS: Born, yes.

AI: And so, what kind of, how did that change, it must've been a big change for you, 'cause you had been the youngest for so long.

BS: For eleven years I was the baby. [Laughs] And so, then I became like a babysitter. And I, and when, when my father told the older siblings, my brother would say, "That's impossible" -- 'cause my mother was forty-four -- he said, "That's impossible, she can't have a baby." And I'm thinking, "Why can't she have a baby?" [Laughs] But then, see, she had -- 'cause when I was born I was, right, pronounced dead, 'cause I was black and blue. Well, I was a breech baby. And then my sister, when she was, my mother was pregnant with her, she had problems with her and she was, like, sideways. And she's, of course, camp had a hospital so she was, my mother had to remain in the hospital for, I don't know, several weeks, I guess, and hoping that the baby would turn. And I know, I remember going with my father to the hospital and he'd be, I'd be standing in the hallway and I could her him talking to, my dad talking to the doctor. And the doctor said that because the baby won't turn, that either the baby could die or my mother could die, or both could die. And that, but, but I guess just before delivery, turned, but she was also breech. But it worked out fine. But she was the only one that was born in a hospital. [Laughs]

AI: Isn't that something? She was the only one born in a hospital and it was the hospital in the camp.

BS: Camp, uh-huh. And it was the, the doctor who delivered her was from, a doctor from Portland. So my father knew him.

AI: Well, so during this time in Minidoka, of course, your mother was busy. She had this new baby. And you were going to school. What about your father, and was he doing any kind of activity or did he have some work?

BS: He was, I think, doing kind of janitorial or something.

AI: He was continuing that kind of work?

BS: Uh-huh. And then, I don't know, at one point where my, my father went out to work, when they were allowed to go out to work and he went to work at Twin Falls which was the closest town from Minidoka. And he, he lived out there. And I don't know if he, it was something to do with the railroad or what, but he worked out there. And then at a certain point we were allowed to get a day permit or pass and then we could go visit him. And they, I know they had a bus that would take us from camp to Twin Falls. And then even other times, if you could get a pass and just spend the day in Twin Falls. And so we would, I remember going and visiting my father, my two brothers above me and my sister Flora and I went to visit my dad out there.

AI: Oh. So, well, so then as time was going on then, we, we're coming up into 1945 and let's see, from 1944, 1945, that probably would have been sixth grade for you.

BS: Uh, I guess so, I guess so. And then I know my, my, then my dad, I guess he came back from Twin Falls, and then he and my brother Claude and Junior and then my sister Flora, they went to work in... was it Eastern Oregon? It, I think it was Nyssa, Oregon. And a family friend had bought property on a little island that was out there. And so they went to work for them for a while. And so, so that's why my mother and my grandfather and my sister Diana and I were the only ones left in camp. And then gradually people started leaving camp and they were going to different places. And, but my father said that, he told my mother that, to remain as long as possible in camp because we're all dependents, the four of us, and that he wasn't sure where he wanted to settle. He didn't know whether he wanted to go back to Oregon or move elsewhere. And so, so we were there, we were there 'til October and people were leaving. And I was upset because all of my friends were leaving and I said, "When are we gonna leave?" And finally my father decided -- after visiting Hood River a couple of times and he saw the racial prejudice, even then -- that he decided to move to the Chicago area because my two older sisters lived in that area and they encouraged him to go out to Chicago because, so we could start a new life. And she said, and they said that there wasn't the prejudice out there like back in Oregon.

AI: Well, before you got to that point of actually leaving camp, of course, the, in 1945 the atom bomb was dropped and Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed and then there was the end of the war, Japan surrendered. And I'm wondering, do you, how did you hear about that or what did you...

BS: I don't remember. I really don't remember.

AI: Do you recall anybody talking about that, or any news about...

BS: No, I, I just, I don't remember that.

AI: Well, and of course you were probably not in school at that time because that was August.

BS: Uh-huh.

<End Segment 26> - Copyright © 2003 Densho. All Rights Reserved.