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-01-0027

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MA: 'Cause you were only in Chicago, so you got there in May, right, of 1943, and you stayed until September?

KB: September, yeah. I think school started sometime in September, but I think I went back to camp before I went to school.

MA: Oh, to visit your family.

KB: To visit my family.

MA: So what was that visit like, going back to camp?

KB: By that time, they were in Minidoka. You know how Tule Lake became a place for the dissenters, and so my family had moved to Minidoka. So I went to see them there, and I don't remember anything really outstanding about that. My brothers were in eastern Oregon, so it was my parents and my two sisters. My third sister also left camp for Philadelphia. She got a job as a secretary.

MA: Was this around the same time that you also left? So summer, spring/summer of '43?

KB: I was already in Philadelphia, so she must have... let's see. Probably in '44.

MA: So when you saw your parents, did they talk at all about what had happened in Tule Lake and the sort of, I guess, tensions that happened surrounding the "loyalty questionnaire" and then the moving of people out and in?

KB: Not too much. I remember there was some disturbance while were still there, even, but I don't remember that they were involved in anything.

MA: What was the disturbance that you remember?

KB: I think some people from Hawaii were moved into Tule Lake. I was never quite sure of what happened, but some conflicts between the Hawaiians and the people who were already in Tule Lake. And shortly after that, the ones who were the 'no-no,' you know about the 'no-nos,' were left there, and the others were moved out. So I'm not sure that much happened while my parents were there, still there.

MA: And during that transition, your parents went to Minidoka?

KB: Right, yeah.

MA: And so you visited them before you started med school?

KB: I did, uh-huh.

MA: Okay.

KB: I also visited my brothers in Oregon.

MA: What were they doing in Oregon, were they farming?

KB: They were working on the sugar beet farms. I think they were working for a Japanese family. Okay, so, okay, I can describe an experience I had in Idaho. My youngest sister also wanted to see my brother, so she and I boarded a bus from Minidoka camp to Twin Falls, Idaho, and then we had to change... okay. At Twin Falls, somehow, we had our tickets, but they wouldn't let us, they were really discriminatory towards the camp people because it was just the regular bus, and of course, they let all the white people on first, and then if there were seats, then the people from camp could get on. Well, it so happened that there were no seats for my sister and (me), so we had to wait for the next bus. And then when we got to Boise to take the bus from Boise to Oregon where my brothers were, we missed that bus so we had to stay overnight in Boise. And people were very antagonistic towards us. We were spit at, and they would say, "Japs," and call us names. And that was the worst experience that I had during this period. Maybe worse things happened to other people, but in my personal life, that was the worst experience, where somebody spit at us. That has never happened after that, never before that. It was kind of scary.

MA: And these were just people on the street...

KB: On the street.

MA: ...seeing you and...

KB: We were trying to look for a place to stay because we had to wait for the bus in the morning and walking the streets, and that's what happened, which made me even more frightful about staying in this place. But, so we found a room and we hardly slept, but at least we found a room where we could lie down. And then we caught the bus the next day and got to where my brothers were, and they were working for a good sugar beet farm, which was part of the war effort to provide the sugar. I remember there was a sugar shortage during that time and sugar was rationed. So...

MA: And how were their experiences in Eastern Oregon? Did they have similar...

KB: They were fine, they were fine. It was just this one area, I guess, where the people were so antagonistic.

MA: In Idaho?

KB: I don't know why, what the reason was. Maybe it was just this one family or one group that felt that way. That was the worst experience that I had during this time. It wasn't the best of times, put it that way. So it makes you apprehensive about going anywhere during this period.

MA: When you were on your way back, did you have to go through Idaho again? You must have dropped off your sister then in Minidoka.

KB: Right, uh-huh. And I had no problems going back, and I had a ticket already for Philadelphia, and there was no problem. It was, I think it's just, maybe individuals who were treating people this way.

<End Segment 27> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.