<Begin Segment 21>

TI: Now, did you ever come across Japanese that were living in, sort of, Minneapolis/St. Paul before the war? That there were longtime...

MS: No, I didn't.

TI: So it was pretty much a resettlement community.

MS: Yes, yes. Yeah, it was. Hamline was, I didn't do well. And so I didn't... I wasn't a good student to begin with, and so I didn't do very well. And so I didn't go back after my first year, but I did have to go to work. And I went to the recreation department there, and I was hired. And I was told later that that was very rare, that I was probably one of the first to be hired to a municipality in the recreation department. And very kind to me, and I had a good time working in the community.

TI: And what was your role?

MS: I was a playground leader, and it was fun. I had such a good time there. But it was not the kind of things that I was used to. You know, like in the wintertime, I have to go out and sprinkle the water for a skating rink and carrying bats and balls and going on the streetcars. And you know, we've always drove cars, but they had... it was really kind of an interesting place. And I'd go down to a meeting with the, we'd have these meetings, the staff meetings, and I'm listening to all this. And the people were speaking up and saying things, and that was a new experience for me. But I had a very good time there, and I had a good time with the kids. And in fact, one day, a man came over and said, "I came over to see what was going on over here. Our kids are here all the time, and I wanted to know what was going on." So you had a group of kids that were really very nice, and I really had a good time. But I left St. Paul because I needed to come back. My parents were not well, and I came back to the Yakima valley.

TI: Okay, so this is after the war.

MS: Yes. I worked for St. Paul for about four years.

TI: It sounds like a pretty wonderful time.

MS: It was. It was very neat.

TI: Did you ever get a reaction, positive or negative, about you being Japanese?

MS: One day, when I first got there, I was walking down the street, and it was cold and there was ice on the sidewalk, and I almost fell. So I saw a telephone pole and I put my arms around it to catch my bearing. And across the street, there's a soldier saying, "Hey lady, are you that hard up?" [Laughs] And I turned around and looked at him, and he didn't look like an American. And I finally said, "What are you, anyway?" And he said, I think he was an Indian soldier. But it was funny to, these kind of funny little things that happened. [Laughs]

TI: Oh, that's interesting.

MS: It was very difficult living. The weather was all, in the summertime, it's very hot, lots of mosquitoes. And in the wintertime it's so cold, and the fall, the lightning and the thunders and so forth. So I was kind of glad to come back to be with my parents in Wapato.

<End Segment 21> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.