<Begin Segment 45>

AI: Well, now, also in the meantime, back at Minidoka, your parents are still there with you.

PB: Yes.

AI: And then also, I think now your sister Fan had two young children that were born in camp.

PB: Uh-huh.

AI: And then your sister Emily, now, what happened with her?

PB: She stayed in camp with Fan, Emily stayed in camp with Fan so that she could help her with her two children. Because Fan's husband had gone already. He had left camp and gone on to Chicago. So they were going to join him in Chicago. Gene, Emily's husband, had come down to camp, but he didn't want to stay in camp, naturally. So he, he had gone, I think, to Ohio, I believe, or Michigan. And he was gonna meet her out there when she went back with Fan, as soon as the baby was born. She was waiting for her second child to be born. So after David was born... he was named after David Eisenhower, and her first son was named after General Wainwright. So his name is Wayne. And, of course, she had the two babies, so it was pretty hard for her to make the train trip herself, so Emily stayed and helped until she was able to leave, and then they headed for Chicago.

AI: And also, just to kind of keep track here, then your, your brother Hank, who had not gone into camp, was he living in Eastern Washington at that time?

PB: He was living in Wenatchee with the Loepp family. And he, he had made one trip into camp to see what it was like, and he didn't think it was very pleasant. But he didn't have an easy life outside of camp, either. He couldn't go anywhere just like olden times; he had to be very careful because they didn't want the Japanese people going anyplace, so he was, couldn't go to the hospital, and Martie had her children. But fortunately, Mrs. Loepp was a registered nurse. So I guess she delivered the children at, at their home. And then they decided that they were gonna come to camp and pick up Mother and Dad and take 'em back to Wenatchee. Because I was reluctant to leave, they were trying to push me out, because they said, "Well, your two children are out. You've got to leave camp." And I said, "Well, I can't leave my mother and dad here by themselves." And they said, "Well, don't worry," because Hank was gonna come and get them, so I finally... I had quite a debate with my daughter, because I didn't want to go Chicago, but she did. I wanted to come back to Seattle. No, she wanted to go to a big city. She was just bent on going -- we got in a terrible argument. So I had to go before a counselor, which was very unpleasant for me, because they were all trying to get me out. So there was just no way that I was gonna win.

AI: Well, and this was in 1944, was it? Or 1945 when the administration were trying to get people to leave the camp, and that they were going to prepare to close it down.

PB: Yes. So they thought, especially with me being in the Reports Office, if I could get out and write to my boss in camp telling everybody that, how wonderful it was being outside and being free to do what I like, and I'd be, it would be such a wonderful life to get out of camp and go back to normal living. So they wanted to get me out as soon as possible. But I didn't want go because I was afraid, for one thing. You know, you don't have any money and you don't have no experience, you're working in a strange city. In the first place, I didn't like cities. But they finally forced me out and I had to go.

<End Segment 45> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.