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MA: So I wanted to go back a little bit and talk about leaving Amache. So your father was released, well, quote/unquote "released" 'cause he came to Amache from Crystal City. Was that like 1944? Sort of right before the war ended?

IN: Yeah, about '44, or '45, right.

MA: And when you, the time came that the camp was closing --

IN: No, we left before that.

MA: You left before, okay.

IN: Because you see, we had a place to go home to, or we hoped to get. The people that didn't have a place to go home to stayed. But we, my father was anxious to see if the ranch was still intact.

MA: Okay, so then the family went back to Petaluma, back to the ranch.

IN: And at that time, the brother, not next to me, but one above that, got a letter from the military. And he had graduated optometry school in Chicago, but he got a letter from the military. It said that you have to go into the military. So he had a little bit of time before, so he came to the camp and took us, helped us get back.

MA: And when you came back to Petaluma, what was the reaction that people had?

IN: It was very bad. We were on the bus, we didn't stop in the town. But as we were passing by the main street, there were all kinds of signs on the windows and signs saying, "Go back, Jap. We don't want you."

MA: So when you returned back, you'd said before that the tenant had actually kept up the property pretty well.

IN: Yes, we were, we were on a Greyhound bus. We were left off about a half a mile from our home on the 101 Highway. And we got our suitcases, because I think we only had one carrying suitcase. Left on 101, as the Greyhound bus went on and walked back to the ranch. It was quite an experience.

MA: And so when you came back, you had graduated from high school at that point, right? What were your plans? You mentioned previously that you went to college, and how did your parents feel about that?

IN: Well, first of all, I went to, I believed in education. All the boys had been educated, but my father and mother, too, did not believe in a woman getting too much education. My sister had gone to business college before the war. In fact, she was at the Burbank Business College in Santa Rosa. And then the war started. So they believed in the business college. I didn't want to go to a secretarial college, so I first, I knew I wanted education, and so I commuted on a bus to Santa Rosa Junior College. I went there for a brief time. There was a business teacher that told me, encouraged me to go into business teaching, because I was very good in the different subjects. So then I pleaded with my father at that time, after a short while, I could go to San Jose State. He really rejected it for a while, but then he came around and I was permitted to go.

MA: And how was your father doing at that point? Had he started up the ranch again?

IN: Uh-huh. Well, to start up the ranch, they needed finance. So the brother that had been waiting to go to the military, he and my father went to other poultry ranches and worked for them.

MA: And eventually built up enough money.

IN: Enough, uh-huh, finances to start a small business.

MA: Okay.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.