Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Tokio Hirotaka - Toshio Ito - Joe Matsuzawa Interview
Narrators: Tokio Hirotaka, Toshio Ito, Joe Matsuzawa
Interviewer: Alice Ito
Location: Bellevue, Washington
Date: May 21, 1998
Densho ID: denshovh-htokio_g-01-0025

<Begin Segment 25>

TI: I was out on a work release program, you know, they were...

AI: Oh, excuse me, before you, before you jump to that, we are getting ahead a little bit here, but just before we, you were just talking about Pinedale. And for people who don't know, I wanted to ask you, when you were leaving Pinedale, what did you, did they tell you what was gonna happen, that you were going to a more permanent camp? What did you, what were you told?

TH: Well, the Pinedale was under the jurisdiction of the military, of the U.S. Army, or military... and Tule Lake was WRA, under jurisdiction of WRA. But as far as Pinedale was concerned, the army served us better food. The military, the food was better. 'Cause, well it wasn't much to brag about, but when you compare it with Tule Lake, it was better.

AI: Well, now you were all used to having fresh vegetables, and things that you had grown yourself. Your chickens and your eggs, and...

TI: I remember some of those kitchens, though, where they, people were mostly farmers, they didn't have very many good cooks, so the food might have been better, but it wasn't prepared in the best way that it could have been. But we all survived. And I don't really know whether they told us that we were gonna go up to Tule or not from Pinedale, do you?

JM: No, I don't think so, until a few days, or couple of weeks before we left.

TI: Yeah, as I recall, I think it was pretty abrupt. They didn't tell us how long we were gonna stay at Pinedale. And when they did tell us, they didn't tell us where we were going again.

AI: So had you, you were at Pinedale for what, a few months? And then you were --

JM: I think it must have been a couple of months, wasn't it?

TI: We left Bellevue around the 20 -- between the 20th and 22nd of May, as I recall.

JM: And it seemed like we were there a couple of months.

TI: Yes. At least two months. Maybe longer.

<End Segment 25> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.