Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Kazuko Uno Bill Interview I
Narrator: Kazuko Uno Bill
Interviewer: Megan Asaka
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: May 7, 2008
Densho ID: denshovh-bkazuko-01-0026

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MA: And Chicago was, I know, the site of a large Japanese American community, people who would leave camp to go to Chicago.

KB: Lot of, lot of them did go to Chicago.

MA: What were your impressions when you, when you got there? Was that apparent that there was a large Japanese American community?

KB: No, actually, I had very little to do with the Japanese Americans. I did know one guy from... not Auburn, Kent, who came to see me when I was in Chicago, and then I met another guy from California who was in Chicago. I know there were others, some people that I had grown up with were there, but I just, I was there for three months and I never did get together with them. I was with a Jewish family, he was a pharmacist.

MA: You were living with a Jewish family?

KB: A Jewish family. I did not pass the Missus as far as my housework went. She didn't like my housework. [Laughs] And so I ended up by taking care of her two little boys, and she offered me board and room for that. I got a job in this book factory checking out books. I had to look over books to make sure the pages weren't upside-down and this sort of thing. And the family that I was with were very generous in letting me stay there.

MA: Had you, how did you become hooked up with them? Was it through an ad?

KB: I think the camp had a list of places where there was a need for domestic help. So we were just, I guess just handed out to, they handed out the names of these people who were looking for help.

MA: And the three other women that you came with all sort of did the same thing? They stayed with families and did housework and took care of the kids?

KB: Right, in different parts of Chicago. In fact, one, I think was even out in the suburb of Chicago.

MA: What was the neighborhood like where you were staying with this family?

KB: It was a Jewish neighborhood in south Chicago, and flats, kind of interesting because there was a very loud neighbor. The children were all young in that particular section, and they would play together and she would shout out from her deck, "You, you fight for yourself. You're not gonna lose to any other boy. You hit him, you can do anything to hit him. You fight for yourself." And I'm listening to all this, okay, that's the way these people are. [Laughs] And I could understand why she felt that way, though. If you give in to somebody, you're gonna be stepped on, and she wanted to make sure her child wouldn't be in that situation.

MA: So you said the neighborhood was a predominately Jewish neighborhood? What were the professions that most people did. Did you get the sense that they were mostly professionals?

KB: I think they were professionals. The family I stayed with, the husband was a pharmacist, he owned his drugstore. His wife was very interested in books, and she would do book reviews. I think they were very well-educated. And probably the neighborhood had similar type people. And I think I mentioned to you before about the brother of this man who was a physician and worked in a relocation camp.

MA: Do you know which camp he worked in?

KB: I don't remember. It was not Tule Lake, but it was one of the camps. And he was killed in a car accident, which was, left me in a very bad position when they heard about this news. I was living with them, and here they were helping me, one of the inmates of the camps. And of course they were very upset over this.

MA: Did you feel like they would somehow blame you?

KB: Yeah, I felt very guilty that this happened, but they were very nice. I mean, I don't think they had any bad feeling towards me.

MA: Was he killed, or was he in the accident in the, in one of the camps?

KB: It was in one of the camps. I think there were these -- I don't think it had anything to do with the residents of the camp, I think it was like a military truck or whatever it was. It was the official car that he was in an accident with, and I don't remember the details of what had happened. It was kind of a shocking news to the family. This happened at, he had volunteered, apparently, to serve in a camp, and that he died there. So that was kind of a difficult time for the family. But they were, they were very good. I was like a country kid, and they were more sophisticated city people, and when she found out that I was going to medical school, she said, "Well, you gotta get your hair done and you've gotta get some new clothes." [Laughs]

MA: What did you think of that when she, when she told you?

KB: I thought, "Well, that's great. All right, she's gonna improve my appearance." I, actually, we left, when I left, we were good friends. At first, I don't know how she was gonna feel towards me, but I think, I think we left as friends.

MA: Did your, your girlfriends that you came over with, did they have similar experiences, positive experiences that you know of?

KB: I think so. One of them went into nursing after quite a while. She worked much longer than I did, and one of them got married to a Chicago fellow, and the other one returned to California, she married in California. And I think that, I think the families who asked for help from the camp people probably were ones that were a little more understanding of our situation.

MA: So the families would then, they would specifically ask the camps for help?

KB: I think there was some kind of employment service or whatever that handled these things. Must, there must have been some kind of advertising to let them know that there were people in camp who wanted to do work. I don't know who did this. I know the Quakers were very involved in getting people out of the camps into more normal life. Whether they were involved with getting domestic help out, I don't know, but they were certainly involved with getting students out.

MA: Were there Quakers in Tule Lake that you remember that, sort of active in helping that?

KB: I don't think, I'm not sure if anybody within camp, but they were working outside of the camp to get students out. I met some in, when I got to Philadelphia, I met some, they wanted to hear our stories, and we did talk about our experiences in camp, and they were particularly interested in getting students out.

MA: So going back to Chicago, you said you also worked in a book factory. Was this the same time you were also living with the family?

KB: Right, they decided that I wasn't very good domestic help, and they were, I'm not sure if they helped me get this job, but anyway, I think just from advertisement in the paper or whatever, I found this work in a book factory.

MA: Who were the, your fellow workers? Like what type of people were they?

KB: Well, they were very ordinary women, particularly the kind of work I did. In fact, they were more middle-aged, they were older than I was, and they apparently had been doing this kind of work for quite a while. But we had to go through the book, the books to make sure the pages weren't turned upside-down, the pictures weren't upside-down or something was missing. So it was like an inspection team. And they would chat with each other and turn the pages. And I'd go through real fast, and they said, "Oh, slow down, slow down. You don't have to do so many." [Laughs] So it was kind of an interesting experience, I wouldn't have wanted to do it for the rest of my life, but for the time that I was there, I knew I wasn't gonna stay there.

<End Segment 26> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.