<Begin Segment 13>

TI: Okay, so Sat, the first hour we talked about your early childhood, we talked all the way through the Puyallup Assembly Center. And now I want to take you to Minidoka, Idaho, Hunt, Idaho. So can you describe the trip from Puyallup to Minidoka and what that was like?

SI: I just remember a train ride, taking the train from Puyallup all the way to Minidoka. I remember at that time, a popular song was "Way Beyond the Hills of Idaho," and when we hit that state, Idaho, the following morning, I remembered that song. [Laughs]

TI: So were people singing it?

SI: Some of the kids were singing it, yeah.

TI: So it's called "Way Behind the Hills of Idaho"?

SI: No, "Way Beyond the Hills of Idaho. Where yawning canyons greet the sun." I don't want to sing it for you right now. [Laughs]

TI: Okay. That's a new one. I never heard about this song. So what were your first impressions when you got to Minidoka?

SI: My first impression, "Well, here's another camp with barbed wire fence, guards, the gate that you have to go through." We were bussed in to an area that first we were, we were first sent to Block 21 in Minidoka. And we stayed there for a short period of time, and for some reasons unknown, we were moved up to Block 13. And so we did go to two different barracks in Minidoka.

TI: And what would the difference be between Block 21 and Block 13? Was one more desirable than the other?

SI: Well, the difference is that in Block 21, families that were living in Area C in "Camp Harmony" were the ones that also went into Block 21. So those people that I knew from camp were in Block 21. And when we moved to Block 13, that was a whole new set of people that I had to become familiar with. So that was probably the main difference. But then once, you know, I got to Block 13, I found that there were some people I knew from Seattle. And so it wasn't very long before I formed some new friendships or renewed some old friendships.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.