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SF: So during this period, were you free to go, leave Tule?

JY: Yeah.

SF: So you were civilian?

JY: No, I'm a civilian now.

SF: So you were getting paid...

JY: Yeah, getting paid.

SF: So when, when could you leave Tule?

JY: Huh?

SF: When could you leave Tule Lake?

JY: It was the 22nd of February.

SF: They gave you a letter saying...

JY: Yeah, you were free. And then I looked at the Freedom of Information Act, the WRA record, I was, already had my free release in August of '45. But why they kept me to '46, I don't know. It says on there: "Jimi Yamaichi released."

SF: But you never got any kind of notification?

JY: No, never got notice about being left in August, but was held until February.

SF: So did you think, "How come they're keeping me and why is everybody else leaving?"

JY: Well, I don't know, see. Because of the fact that when I was in the front office there, I heard they were talking about, says, "Well, we don't want to keep, make another Indian reservation, so we've got to, everybody got to get out." So that's where they made that harsh date, November, all the other camps, and they kept Tule Lake. And so a lot of 'em are walking, leaving camp at the end, in Tule Lake. So they know how they, what they did, they picked up the menfolks and told 'em, "Well, you're a Hoshidan member or whatever, any kind of excuse, they grabbed 'em and they sent 'em to Fort Lincoln. And here the poor mama and the kids are standing all by themselves, so what else do they do? They gotta leave, right? They couldn't stay there, no breadwinner, no money, no nothing. So the wives, the mothers and children were left. But meantime, the father was all taken to Fort Lincoln. So that's how they emptied the camp out. And then some of them, I don't know, most, the majority of them went to Fort Lincoln, some went to Crystal City. Meantime, Lordsburg was closed, so they couldn't go to Lordsburg. But Fort Lincoln was the biggest collection. So three hundred at a time, they got on the train, took off.

TI: So can you describe the last group leaving Tule Lake? What was that like for the last people leaving?

JY: The last people leaving, I don't know if you talked about that once before, but by then, it's almost four years, no income, a lot of 'em, no income, zero. And then they came in with their shirt on their back, they're going out without the shirt on their back, just about. And I know I've said it once before, but knowing a lot of 'em couldn't afford after their father or loved one died, couldn't even afford an urn. And meantime, the urn will come to the camp site, and they go to the mess hall and Hills Brothers Coffee can, and transferred. And then poor mom, in order to sit through, whatever it is, you could see them clutching the coffee can like this as they walked out. That's all they had. A lot of 'em just so saddened, they couldn't care less what they brought with them. But that's one of the sad things about seeing these people leaving, walking out with a coffee can. I know what the coffee can was, the ashes of their loved ones. And nowhere to go, no money, no nothing. It's really, really sad because they're like, as a rule, in construction, we take a coffee, actually the smoke break, everybody smokes. And they'll say, Isseis will say, "Saki ga wakaranai de tsurai." "Our future's unknown, so it's very trying." Because they have no home, no nothing, they got to start from scratch, right?" You got to buy a car, blankets, pots and pans and this and that. Hearing that and seeing these people walking out with the coffee can in their hand, you know, really make you feel how lonely it was for them to leave as the last batch was being pulled out of there. 'Cause the last batches were, were taken by bus to Klamath Falls to get on the train. Before, the train used to come down, get a train of three hundred people. Why three hundred would be loaded on and they take off. But towards the end, there was not three hundred. They couldn't get three hundred together so they had to take 'em by bus. They would get on the bus and go to Klamath Falls. But at the time, 'cause I got a disturbing call when I was there working for WRA as a civilian. My father called and says, "We need a tractor." Once I knew that we needed a tractor, says, "I can't buy a tractor. Nobody'll sell me a tractor."

TI: Jimi, you told me that story earlier, so we'll... yeah...

JY: You remember that one?

TI: That one and the truck, yeah, they got a big truck later on. But I was thinking, when you were closing the camp down, a few years later, during sort of the, what we called the Red Scare, the Communists, that there was talk of actually having camps available for the Communists. And I think Tule Lake came up as a potential site.

JY: Yes, it did.

TI: And so I was wondering if there was any discussion when you were closing camps to keep certain things running or in place in case it had to be used as a camp again in the future.

JY: Yeah, well, they kept everything running. It was several years before the camp was, started to be dismantled. We were told that everything got to be, stay put, that's why they wanted to bring all the trucks, moving equipment into the stockade so they had the moving equipment all fenced in there. And the fence, none of the fences were touched. And when we were leaving, they actually locked the gate behind us and says, "A caretaker will take care from here on." The army was gone way before we did, I mean, the army was really, they were, I think in '45, mid-'45, they were released, so internal security was watching the gate. The gates were open for everybody. I think that's when all the pictures were taken. There's, a lot of pictures were taken after we left. Well, time we were leaving, people were taking picture with a camera. But most of us, we didn't do too much work. There was not much work. For me, I had my job pretty well done, and was helping the Caucasian workers pack up and leave and get on there, some got trailers, some packed up their cars and left. The hakujins that I worked with were real nice. I mean, I had some real good, made good friends with them.

TI: But you also earlier mentioned that when you lived over there, you also learned that there was also friction and divisions amongst the administration? So why would there be that kind of division or friction?

JY: Well, see, because the people that used to work for Indian Affairs, they all hung together. And they lived in the best living quarters. And then the people that was not with the Indian Affairs lived in the converted warehouses, barracks. And they ate in different mess hall, they didn't eat in the same mess hall. So thing like that, so they were not too happy. I mean, they were cussing each other all the time. Yeah, it's really, you could see the, you could almost slice it the way they were talking.

TI: And then earlier you mentioned, so when you finally left, you said they just closed the gates, locked the gates and you guys walked away.

JY: Walked away.

TI: So the barracks were all still there?

JY: Still, everything was intact. Everything was intact. Nothing was touched, nothing was torn down, nothing was moved, no. Nothing. It was as-is. And got on the bus and came home.

TI: And then, but who was then left there? I mean, did they have...

JY: They had just one guard, watchman just watching, that's all there was, people patrolling that area.

TI: And when you walked away from that, what did you think? I mean, here you had spent years of your life, and there used to hold 17-18,000 people there, and now you walk away and there's just one person watching this whole thing. Did you have any thoughts about that?

JY: Not really. I guess you're anxious to get home, just get away from all this. Because it was exactly four years to the day I left. I went in on Memorial Day of '42, and came out Memorial Day of '46. Actually, well, from February to Memorial Day 'cause I was working for the WRA, but still I was in the camp site. So I spent my four years in camp walking the areas there.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.