<Begin Segment 18>

MA: What happened with your family's home and the hotel when you all left Seattle?

SE: When we left, Dad rented a, he had one of the men, men that was working at the hotel, doing odd jobs, I think it was, as a manager, and then... and then there was a night clerk that watched at night. And he left the business with them, and then the house, they... I don't know if he met them, rented to those people, or I don't know how he rented the house. But it turned out to be a disaster, because they were more or less like hillbillies from Montana. [Laughs] Yeah, they made a mess of the house. Yeah, 'cause they didn't bother to vacuum or anything.

MA: So you had a bad experience in that house, what about the, the hotel? How was that kept up?

SE: Oh, the hotel was fine, it ran... and I don't know financially how they did it, but... but I do remember our folks going back to Seattle. I don't know when it was. We bought a house in Seattle on Beacon Hill, in fact, we lived there, 1539 14th Avenue South.

MA: And this was before the war?

SE: Uh-huh, before we went, yeah. I have, I have, I had a brother that was at Firland Sanitarium.

MA: Firland Sanitarium?

SE: Firland tuberculosis sanitarium. And Dad had bought that house with the hopes that when he was able to get out of the hospital, that we would have a nice home for him. So we bought this house in, on Beacon Hill, and he fixed a room special for him that would have plenty of sun.

MA: And what, what year was he admitted to the sanatorium?

SE: He went there I think the year I graduated high school.

MA: 1937?

SE: Uh-huh.

MA: And how long was he in there?

SE: Twelve years. I think it was twelve years.

MA: Wow, that long.

SE: Uh-huh. And so he was, he has a story on, on how he was kept within, he couldn't leave the hospital grounds and things, you know, because, being "enemy alien," I mean, to them.

MA: I see. So they wouldn't let him leave, they sort of restricted him, more so than the other patients.

SE: There was no place to go anyway. But he made very good friends with, with a nurse. I guess her husband, her husband was a patient out at Firland, and she was a nurse out at Firland. And when he got out, they got married, but she ended up in the hospital, too. They, they took him in when he got out, and he stayed with them. They lived at West... no, not West Seattle. Queen Anne. They lived out in Queen Anne.

MA: Were you able to stay in touch with friends that were sent to camp...

SE: Yes, uh-huh.

MA: ...from Seattle, like in Minidoka?

SE: Uh-huh. So when I had my, after working for one year, the Blairs gave me a week's vacation. So in the meantime, my brothers from Alaska went to camp, and then my brother had, brother's wife had a baby in camp. And so Dad wanted to see his first grandson, so we went to visit them in Minidoka for one week. I, I stayed just one week, because that was all -- in fact, not even one week, because that was my vacation, first vacation. But the folks stayed on, I don't know whether they stayed three weeks or what, but they stayed on.

MA: Where did you all stay when you were in Minidoka?

SE: You know, they gave us a visitor's apartment, I guess. We had one of the blocks, and we stayed.

MA: What did you think when you kind of went to visit camp?

SE: Well, it was like going on a picnic. [Laughs] It was kind of a fun experience, because, like, all your friends are all eating together. And so for me it was, like I say, fun, but it wasn't for them. This is what we did, this is all we did. When it's day after day, same old thing, yeah.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.