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AI: Oh, we're continuing on, and I was going to ask a little bit more about, about Minidoka. You were just talking about how cold it was in the winters there, also in Tule Lake, and also that there were some, many families, especially the women, who had younger children that you saw.

PB: Oh, yes. They had to wash diapers in cold water... it must have been horrible for them, and the rains, when the rains came, it was so muddy, and that mud was just like glue. I remember my daughter came to visit one time, she, she was living in Twin Falls with the teachers, and she would come in to visit and she missed the little plank that was, served as a walk up to the building, and she stepped in the mud and she lost her shoe and it was terrible. It was just like glue; it would come up over your ankles. And my boss used to come and pick me up, he, we would go to dances, we went to church services, and, 'course, the Reports Office went to all the different blocks. We tested foods, if there were any complaints about food or any complaints about anything, we tested it, took pictures.

AI: Well, tell a little bit more about the Reports Office.

PB: Well, it was a office where we took pictures, ID pictures, and we went out and inspected the foods. We went out to all the different blocks, and if there were any complaints, we went to church services to see how things were going religiously, of course, we had a Catholic father and we had other ministers. And my boss, John, was a very versatile man. He would take up, give a sermon, or he would get up. And, of course, he loved to dance; he was a very good dancer, and I loved to dance, so he would come and get me as a partner and we'd go to dances. We had a lot of fun, and of course, the Catholic father would be there, and he'd, but said he couldn't dance. He'd say, "Well, I'll sit on the sidelines, so this one's for me." And he would watch us, and I know I went to a church service with John one time, and I was real surprised because I didn't know that he could get up and give a sermon, but he did. And he was, he was a lot of fun; I taught him a Japanese song, "My Blue Heaven," and he'd, he'd say, "Well, let's sing 'My Blue Heaven.'" We'd sing it in Japanese together, and he was really a lot of fun. And one night when he brought me home, it was so muddy that he didn't want me to lose my shoe, so he says, "I know what I'll do, I'll take you piggyback." [Laughs] So he was taking me piggyback, and I can just imagine what the Issei thought if they saw, happened to see us. But he was like that, and he would talk to my mother and had a few words of Japanese, and he was a lot of fun.

AI: Well, it sounds like, because of your work in the Reports Office, that you saw quite a bit of the Minidoka camp, that you went around to a number of different areas.

PB: Yes. I went to funerals, I went to weddings, when we had, around New Year's, some places pound mochi, around Christmas people put up decorations, they had a contest, who would have the best Christmas decorations, and they had dances and orchestras playing. Camp was not a boring place, because you meet people from all over. And you almost forget that you're in camp. I think it becomes just like ordinary life. You just think, well, you're there and there's nothing you can do about it. You're stuck there until they say you can move on. So you live there just like that's a part of your life. And I don't regret camp life. I think that it's an experience that it wasn't always pleasant, but it's an experience that I don't regret that I had. Because very educational, you met a lot of people, had varied experiences, you did a lot of things that you, if we had been on the outside, I might have been working on the farm all my life. Who knows? But being in camp, you learn different trades, I went to school, continued going to school after I came to Idaho.

AI: And then it sounds like you got very involved in the photography through the Reports Office work.

PB: Yes. I got involved in photography, so consequently, I learned everything about photography. I learned how to develop, how to enlarge, how to print different pictures and different papers, and then also taking up typing, I took up tying, and so when I went to Chicago, it came in very handy because I got a position in the office typing, and I wasn't that good a typist, but the experience proved very useful. And to this day, since I lost the ability to write, I can still type. So that way it has been a wonderful thing for me.

<End Segment 41> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.