<Begin Segment 23>

TI: Going back to this church camp and Reverend Andrews, let's talk a little bit about Reverend Andrews, because he was your, your reverend in Seattle at the Japanese Baptist Church. He and his family moved to Twin Falls to minister to his congregation. And so he set up sort of his, his congregation in, at Minidoka. What was that like? Was it comforting to you to see Reverend Andrews and his family?

YN: More than that, I think the essence isn't so much -- because I was, I'm certain to the older Niseis -- it was why they were the way they were. He married many of those people in Twin Falls. For those who were older that understand the role of Baptism, he brought 'em into the little towns so they could be Baptized, 'cause there was no Baptismal place in the camp. There was no traditional church. All the things that were important, he did. For me, he did the thing -- for me as a child. When I went to camp, that was exciting again, and the story that the relationship, out of all those two years, the two summers I got to go, I had only one pen pal in my life in my internment. One pen pal during the four years. And I met that young person at this camp. And, and it was two years ago when I was working on the pilgrimage, and I was speaking in Idaho, I decided I'll see if I can locate this person. He came from a little town of Weiser.

TI: So just to, to clarify, so this was a person that you met up in that camp in Sun Valley.

YN: And we've (not) been in contact since I came back (to Seattle), left (Minidoka in fall of 1945).

TI: Okay, so two --

YN: But he wrote to me when I was in camp.

TI: So --

YN: 'Cause one person that understood, made it in my understanding, I was not free; I was interned. I was the one that was captive and he was free. And he would send me notes, we'd exchange pictures (...). And then by hook or crook, I found out (through) a Japanese American woman living in Weiser that came to that town after leaving Minidoka (in 1945), (...) called her and I said, "This sounds stupid, I'm doing this Minidoka story, and do you happen to know a (person) named Ray Hill? Raymond Hill?" And she says, "Raymond Hill? I worked with him. He lives here, yes, he just retired, he was a schoolteacher." I said, "Will you do me a favor? It could be, my childhood memory could be very vague, could be wrong. Will you ask him if he remembers anything?" And he was writing, in his retirement, a story about his family, and he had just found a picture that I had sent him, but he didn't know which one I was of the, in the picture. And I found his picture, and I called and we talked, and I said, "Ray, there's a reason, I hope you don't mind. I want to know from you" -- what you asked me -- "why you wrote to me." Okay? "Of all the hundreds of kids I met, you wrote to me." And it was the simplest answer a child would give. He says, "In my town, there were two, three Japanese American families farming. I was in school, in grade school like you, and they were my friends." He never realized I was interned!

TI: So he thought you were just in another town in Idaho.

YN: Yes, called Minidoka. Hunt, Idaho.

TI: Because there were other Japanese American families in Idaho that weren't in camp, like in Weiser.

YN: Weren't in camp, they were their classmates.

TI: Which is kind of interesting, you mentioned this earlier, and sometimes these families, these Japanese American families from Weiser or other towns in Idaho would visit Minidoka.

YN: Absolutely.

TI: What was that like?

YN: You see, we're not very smart. They could come in the gate, get permission, come to visit the families, their friends that they'd known from the West Coast, let alone they were already there, and then they could leave. Did you ever realize we couldn't leave with them and go with them? But no one asked the question. But then when you say you could relocate, you could go to Washington, D.C., New York and work, the people went. But you couldn't come back to Seattle.

TI: Or you couldn't even just go to Weiser, or just right outside.

YN: That's what I'm saying. The government says you could go out there (but) we didn't (truly) have freedom. We were dictated (to). If they could have kept 157,000 of our people in the territory of Hawaii, the most strategic military place (in the Pacific), and never interned any of them (to the mainland camps), and they would take 120,000 of us from Blaine, Washington, to San Diego and put us (in internment) -- come on. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what it's all about. I have no (more) comments. When I speak today, I don't have any comments. (I just tell them my story as I understand today).

<End Segment 23> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.