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TI: So let's kind of walk through this. So you were in Poston, and then so you were there with, initially, your... is it your brother, your sister?

WY: My brother went to...

TI: He was in the army, wasn't he?

WY: Yeah. Oh, no, wait a minute.

TI: No, he went to Tule Lake.

WY: Tule Lake, yeah. He was first, he was with us and then he decided that, "If they're going to treat us like that, I'm just going to go to Japan."

TI: Okay. So your brother initially was with you, then after the "loyalty questionnaire," he went to Tule Lake.

WY: And before they sent him over, the war ended with the atomic bomb. And so then he said, "I'll join the army," and he joined the army. 'Cause he didn't have anything else to do. No trade, no...

TI: So your brother was initially in Poston and then went to Tule. Your sister was there for a while, and then she went to Arkansas?

WY: Yeah, to marry (a) Sugiyama.

TI: Who was that same family that...

WY: Yeah, right, right.

TI: ...that you took baths with, I think, a long time ago, possibly?

WY: Yeah, yeah.

TI: And then you were the third. So where did you go?

WY: I went to San Diego with my mother, 'cause my father passed away in camp.

TI: But first, but first you went to Chicago?

WY: Oh, yes, I went to Chicago.

TI: You went to Chicago, and you worked in, I think, a candy factory?

WY: Yeah, I was running a wrapper machine. I hated machinery, it would scare me. [Laughs] The things were spinning around like this, you know, it just scared me.

TI: So how did you decide to go to Chicago? What was in Chicago?

WY: Well, let's see. Because everybody was going there. My friend was going there, Jeannie, and she was going to join with a group of girls that were going to be nurse's aides, nurse's aides. And so I didn't want to be a nurse's aide so I went to a factory and got a job in a factory. And then, because she went to live with these girls in a nurse's home, I had to find a place to live. So her brother found me a place to live with this little old lady from Latvia. [Laughs] Every time I'd have guests she'd just corner them and start talking religion. And I said, "Mrs..." I've forgotten what her name was, "you can't do that to my friends."

TI: She sounded like a sweet little lady, though.

WY: Yeah, sweet little old lady. Then I moved out with my girlfriend, and we lived together for a while. And then what happened? Oh, we lived together in Chicago and then my father died in camp. I don't think he wanted to get out and look for a living again.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.