Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Peggie Nishimura Bain Interview
Narrator: Peggie Nishimura Bain
Interviewer: Alice Ito
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: September 15-17, 2004
Densho ID: denshovh-bpeggie-01-0039

<Begin Segment 39>

AI: Well, also, you had mentioned a little earlier that while you were still at Tule Lake, that Pat turned fifteen. She had a fifteenth birthday party.

PB: Yes. This family that, they're schoolteachers, they gave her a birthday party, and had a cake and we had pictures taken. And they wanted to leave Tule Lake, they would go back, they're from Oklahoma. They were going back to Oklahoma, but they wanted to take some Japanese student with them, and give them the opportunity to have an education outside of camp. So they were testing the various children to see who had high IQ, and my daughter happened to have a very IQ, I guess the highest of the girls they tested. So they asked me if I would give permission for them to take my daughter to Oklahoma. Well, I was against it at first; I didn't want her to go to a strange count-, state, not a country, but state, and be away at such a critical age where she's fifteen. And she was a person with a strong mind; she wanted to have her way about everything. She was always that way. So I was really reluctant to let her go, but they assured me that they would take full responsibility. So finally, I agreed. So she went to Lawton, Oklahoma, with them, and she went to school in Lawton, and I learned that this lady's father was a judge in Oklahoma, in Lawton, so I knew that they were a respectful family. And then later on, they decided to come to Minidoka and take up the teaching position again. So then they moved into Twin Falls, Idaho, and they commuted to camp every day to teach in the schools there.

AI: I was wondering if you, if Pat had said much about her experience in Oklahoma, what kind of... of course, the war was still going on and I'm thinking probably not too many people in Oklahoma had ever met a Japanese American before.

PB: No, and they didn't know. The people back there, they just were hardly aware that the people on the Pacific coast had been moved. Oh, most of 'em you talked to, they said, "We didn't know that. We didn't hear anything about that." And so my daughter made speeches. She went to different organizations and gave speeches and talked about her life in camp, and that was probably the first time they ever heard about it. And I met people later on in Chicago, and they said, "Well, I didn't know that," or, "I didn't know any Japanese people. I thought they were really different, and you don't seem to be any more different than anybody else." They just didn't know the Japanese people. So I think that during the whole war, they had no more idea what we were like or anything. Even to this present day, I think people that have never met Japanese, they think we're... I don't know what they think we are. [Laughs] But they didn't think of us as being humans just like they are. We're no different than they are. So I think it's wonderful that through different organizations like Densho, I think that people will be introduced to the Japanese culture and the people, and what they went through. And we're the same American citizens, but we went through a terrible time during the war.

AI: That's right. Well, I know that you were saying that a number of things happened in 1943, and you were explaining also about people leaving Tule Lake, and the separation after the questionnaire, and I think, was it around September or so that you and -- Pat had already left with the teachers to Oklahoma -- and that you and Jim were leaving Tule Lake for Minidoka in about September or so of 1943?

PB: I can't say offhand what date, unless I look it up.

AI: I think you had mentioned that to me earlier. And then also that your parents were also going to be...

PB: They were coming to Minidoka also, but they were, Dad's health was not too good. He always had stomach problems, and I think... when I think back now, he possibly had the start of cancer at the time, but we were not aware of that. And we weren't versed that much about cancer, and I never even gave it a thought that we would have cancer in the family, which I find out that so members, so many members of our family have cancer. You know, my daughter has cancer, and my sister had cancer and my brothers had cancer, both my brothers had cancer. Mother had cancer and Daddy had cancer.

AI: At the time, though, you weren't aware of any of that.

PB: No, I wasn't aware of it, and when I was working in the hospital, I thought, well, cancer is something that just happens in very, very rare cases. I just never thought of it as a disease, like it's as prevalent as a cold or any other disease. I never dreamed of it being anything like that. So Dad's health was deteriorating to a point that he was always saying he's got stomach trouble, and he was always drinking this certain ota isan, the medicine that I kept from... because of my dad's problem, I had a tendency to have stomach problems. So I've got some of that ota isan from the war days. [Laughs] And so they went on a different train than we did. But it's a funny thing, I don't remember anything about the ride from Tule Lake up to Minidoka. I have no recollection of that whatever. I just remember when we got to Idaho, there was a welcome committee to meet us, because we were originally from up here, you know. And there was one particular friend, a Mr. Tade, he was very attentive to me, and he was more like a servant to me. He always wanted to do things for me, and he liked to smoke a cigarette, or cigar. And I detested cigars, so I always wouldn't let him come in the house if he had a cigar. [Laughs] Mother always says, "Oh, you're so mean." She said I was selfish, but, but I just couldn't stand the smell of a cigar.

<End Segment 39> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.