<Begin Segment 23>

MA: But going back a little bit, I mean, when the government initially called for volunteers, what, what happened to you?

GM: I was, I wasn't just feeling ready to go in with them, because they were all about three or four years older than I was, and I, well, I wanted to go in, but I didn't feel like I should go in with them.

MA: And you were saying earlier, your mother had a particular reaction when you told her you wanted to volunteer.

GM: Yeah, well, see, after they went in and were fighting, then I wanted to get in with them. And I told my mother that I'm going to volunteer to go in. And my mother says, "One in the family is enough," and she cried all night long. And I just couldn't stand her crying all night long, and the next morning, I said, "Oh, I'm not going to go in." But funny thing about it, two months later, I was in.

MA: How, how did that happen? Were you drafted?

GM: Yeah. And it's strange because I could have volunteered there, and then decided not to go in because of my mother, and I was drafted right after that, and I was in two months later. Then the sad part about it was that my mother died two months later after that, when I was at... it was more than two months, I guess, it was when I was at Mississippi.

MA: Camp Shelby? So she passed away in camp?

GM: Yeah.

MA: How did she die?

GM: And I don't know what she died of, some kind of a respiratory disease that she died from, but I never got the story how she died.

MA: Had she been sick at all?

GM: No. When I left her, she was working in the kitchen, and they had to take these physicals to work in the kitchen, you know, and have a clean bill of health, and two months later, she was gone. So I, I never questioned it. I came back for emergency furlough and stuff like that. But... I suppose it was a pretty big blow to my dad.

MA: 'Cause after your mom passed away, then it was just him, right? In your, in your barrack?

GM: Did what?

MA: It was just him, wasn't it?

GM: Oh yeah, you mean at that, at home now, uh-huh.

MA: In Minidoka, yeah.

GM: Yeah, because my other sister was married. Yeah, luckily there was, they were still around, but... my dad, well, he took it pretty well. He was a tough guy.

<End Segment 23> - Copyright © 2005 Densho. All Rights Reserved.