<Begin Segment 19>

MS: You adjust, again, it's a matter of adjusting to making sure that you do have to have an underlying kind of a community of a government. Not in a sense of government, but I'm talking about your own government that you can depend on. I think we need that. We need that comfort. And I think unless we have it, I don't think anybody ever feels secure. And if it changes too much, it does leave people with a sense of not having an anchor. But what was interesting was years later, I went back to a symposium. It was 1995, there were two white people sitting behind us, women. Finally I turned around and said, "Why are you people here?" They said, "We live in Powell, and we never knew what was going on, what happened, and my parents never talked about it." And I said, "Oh." She said, "My mother did say that their group brought presents in at Christmas," and I said, "Pat, would you please go back and tell your mother how much we appreciated it? We haven't been able to say thank you." They came back the next day, and I said, "Did you tell your mother what I said?" And she said, "Yes." I said, "What did she say?" She said, "My mother cried." So it's amazing what happens, and sometimes you get to go back and to acknowledge the things that happen and how people treated us. But Heart Mountain was very interesting because you could feel the foment. And even though they were beginning to talk about farming, they didn't have water. The Shoshone River, the canal, had about twelve miles that needed to be finished before they could bring water in. And they did recruit Japanese from the camp to go down and finish that. And the other thing that the people, even though the Wyoming people didn't like us at all, they really needed, when the Japanese began to move in earlier, is that they went out and helped get in the crops, the sugar beet crops were being grown, and they needed to have people come and do that. So in a way, I think there is... I know that Heart Mountain is talking about putting in an exhibit, but I think these are some of the things that needed to be, remind the valley. And not only that, the Hashimonji folks here in Los Angeles, they lived out in Orange County, they had a nursery with all the seeds, Japanese vegetables and so forth, and they released those. And, you know, Judge Ito's father had graduated... I don't know what you call them, but something to do with the agriculture.

TI: Sort of horticulture...

MS: Or whatever, but he knew how to plan the area and how to look at the weather patterns and so forth, so they were able to raise these Japanese vegetables. But I really think that everybody should know about what the Japanese did, and that to clear off three thousand acres at that time when you really don't have the modern equipment that you have now, to clear off that land of the sagebrush and so forth. And I know reading the report that the motor pool people really found it difficult, because to provide the people who were trying to get that farm ready, to have the equipment ready to be able to clear off that land. But they did, and it was amazing kind of fruits and vegetables that they have raised. And I feel, for one thing, that is something that ought to be really talked about in the valley. Because they really left some very wonderful acreage because of the work they've done, and to help finish that canal and so forth. And I don't think that the valley people know about that. And I really feel that that is a legacy that we must talk about. I think the Japanese really ought to talk more about what happened to us, and the kind of legacies that they've left at every camp.

TI: In terms of the improvement, the infrastructure improvements in terms of irrigation.

MS: Yes, and what it's done to the community. Because when you think about Wyoming now and that area of Heart Mountain, you would see birds and you'd see the, all kinds of lush kind of land that they've farmed now. And I think it's a story that must be told.

TI: Good. Well, you just told it. [Laughs] Let's go back to recreation.

MS: Yes.

TI: So you said you worked recreation. Talk about what that was like, what you did.

MS: I wasn't there long enough, really, because we were getting leagues together, the normal things that you do in any place. It was the basketball and the volleyball -- not the volleyball, but the activities, and I think clubs began to form. But I was not there long enough, because I think people were struggling, and we were not able to really do too much to a point. Because when you think about it, the people from the southern California came, and not being able to carry on the supplies, they didn't have clothing for winter. And so when they issued us peacoats, we all got peacoats. And it was kind of interesting, 'cause you'd see the kind of decorations that people would put on and so forth. But it was a struggle, I think for the, especially for the southern California to have this very cold, cold weather. And if you could just, the wind would blow and you'd see the tumbleweeds going by. Just to go back and forth for the meals and to go, to take a shower and you'd try to find time that people weren't there. And it really was very, very primitive, very difficult to just exist, and to make sure that you had enough fuel to burn into these potbelly stoves was something else, too. And like I said, I left in January.

TI: So you were there for just a few months, then.

MS: Just very short time.

TI: At the time you left, was there... I guess it'd have been early in terms of the "loyalty questionnaire," things like that.

MS: No, I wasn't there for that.

TI: Yeah, so that was all a little bit later.

MS: No, yes it was.

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.