<Begin Segment 16>

[Ed. note: This transcript has been edited by the narrator]

TI: Besides the nurse's aide, we talked earlier and you also mentioned sometimes -- and your brother did this, too, he did sugar beets.

SA: He did sugar beets.

TI: But you did also some seasonal sort of out of camp...

SA: I did potatoes.

TI: And I think you mentioned that you did this with...

SA: Bainbridge group.

TI: The Bainbridge group, but you mentioned in your notes working with Jamaican...

SA: Oh, there were Jamaicans, but we kept apart from them. But they're, they're different than our blacks. They're really (much darker and spoke with a different accent).

TI: And so they were Jamaicans that --

SA: But they scared us, 'cause they were adult males out there, and we were (girls) in our 'teens. So like I said, when they banged on the door, we were scared. We're banging on the side hoping the guys next door would come help. Nobody would come out, and finally Mr. Yokoyama came, Roy, and he's one of the smaller (men), but he came, he was trying to (help us), he comes running. But they (had left). But aside from that, we could see them working out there (daily).

TI: And so explain that a little bit more. So when you picked apples, so you would leave Minidoka --

SA: That was fine.

TI: -- and you would live, sort of, in these...

SA: Well, the apples were different. That we went to, that was a daily (commute), we went in and out every morning and came back at night.

TI: So let's talk about the potatoes, I'm sorry, the potatoes.

SA: Okay, the potatoes, we were in this kind of shack, well, you know (a little house), it's really a shack. And I was gonna check with Ritsuko, she's about the only one around that I know (still living). Because of the four of us girls, there (was) Yo Nakata on the Island yet, but she doesn't remember much (about that time). Anna died in Chicago of tuberculosis, (...) Mary Yotsuuye-Ikeda died in Tacoma. So there's only two of us (left). And I don't know how many (more are left), lot have died, because they were older than us. And the only ones that really worked hard, of course, were the married men because they needed to bring money in.

TI: So it was kind of a piecemeal kind of...

SA: Well, the truck goes ahead of us and plows up the dirt, and we followed with a sack and we picked (the) potatoes (uprooted). And the thing we had to watch out for (were) scorpions because when they uproot (them), they're there, too, and we don't want to get bit. So it was dusty, dirty work, 'cause we're behind this (truck) that's kicking up the dirt.

TI: And were you paid by the hour or by...

SA: By the sacks, (I think).

TI: By the sack.

SA: How much we turned up.

TI: So you would fill, you would work all day and then at night you would go to these shacks, you mentioned?

SA: Yeah, and I was wondering, this is what I wanted to ask, I was wondering if, because I don't think the food was brought in, I think we had to make our own with four girls. Actually, there (were) families like the Hamamuras, (Kouras, etcetera).

TI: But so in the shack you would share this with three other girls?

SA: Yeah, there (were four) of us. I'm wondering how (or) what we did. I couldn't remember what we did at the time, but we must have brought in some food. 'Cause there, we were there (...) for a longer permanent stay for potatoes.

TI: And then during this time when you were picking potatoes, you said there were also Jamaican workers there.

SA: Yes.

TI: And so they would have shacks in a different part of the...

SA: I don't know where they came from, but we'd see them in the field. And you know, when they came and banged on our doors, they must have been around, close by somewhere.

TI: And so why did they bang on your door? That's the part I don't...

SA: Well, I don't know, we were scared to open it. We just knew we should not.

TI: Now, can you remember what some of the reasons or why you were fearful of the Jamaicans? What was kind of the sense?

SA: Well, you know, because we've always been within the Japanese community, I think, and we never had much to do with other minorities. Except the Chinese for us, but then our status was about the same except that because of the war, they didn't have to be taken. So this is, again, a minority thing. We didn't have very many blacks, as I said, prior to World War II, because they came in with the defense factory need for workers from the deep South. And these Jamaicans, as I said, were darker and bigger. They seemed huskier. I could be wrong, (but we were scared because we never encountered very many blacks. The minorities didn't mix in Seattle except for business.)

TI: And so did you ever get a chance to ever talk with them?

SA: No, we stayed away from them. [Laughs] This, this is it. I think the great thing about this evacuation is that it turned a lot of us (into a bigger world), it really matured us, I think, to take the responsibility (for civic actions). And like I said, the groundwork was laid by the Isseis because of Japanese culture, we were trying to be dignified. We had enough pride, and yet we were educated enough because they pushed it. And their (Japanese) values were, of course, to be honest, to be righteous, and to work instead of, and to serve others. This is it, I think the great thing was the service, because they did, the tanomoshii, they had to work as a team, and Japan is noted for that, you know, "the nail that stands out get clobbered." Which is different here in America, individualism is, is something they're proud of (here), and creativity. But the Japanese, it's always the teamwork. And they did this in camp, which is why I think we were the best camp of the ten, you know.

TI: Now, why would you say you're the "best camp"?

SA: They said we had the least amount of trouble. And I said, "That's 'cause we're from the Northwest." [Laughs] Down in California, my gosh, they are the majority, and in a lot of places like Terminal Island, it was just almost all Japanese (customs and culture), speaking Japanese to the extent that one of the girls that came into nursing actually had to be tutored on the side by some of the nursing instructors because (her) English was not (...) par. It was amazing. And that's because they came from Terminal Island where Japanese was spoken on the island. They crossed by ferry to the mainland for school and went back (and forth daily. Great students, again Japanese goals for excellence.)

TI: Now, while you were at Minidoka, did you ever get, or hear of the other camps?

SA: No, I heard of this later because when I went into St. Mary's (School of Nursing), we were there with people from Poston, Heart Mountain, Amache, from the different camps. And from there, I learned about their experiences. And I thought, "Wow," and I thought then, too, "Gee, some of these people are very Japanesey," which is different from us in the Northwest. Don't know why that is, (less Japanese, I guess).

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.