<Begin Segment 14>

TI: You were talking about you were at the newspaper, and you wrote the column "I Am Leaving." So let's start from there. So where did you go after Manzanar? What happened next after you wrote the column? Where did you go?

PT: Nothing that I know of.

TI: But you left Manzanar after that?

PT: Yes.

TI: Then where did you go?

PT: I went with a very well-known Issei guy. Her brother was well-known and his wife was well-known. And he said to me -- he drove the ambulance and I was an orderly, so that's how we got to know the other. And he asked me whether I wanted to go with him to Iowa to go to a trade school. He wanted to fix small tools like typewriters and stuff like that, and I just wanted to get out. So we went together, they gave us twenty-five dollars, I guess. [Laughs] But twenty-five dollars got us all the way to Iowa. I wasn't the least bit interested in it, so he went, he said that, "They're closed for the duration." And right next to the bus station was a little restaurant, and we're having our lunch, and here's this sort of good-looking white woman, and you could kind of see through her sweater. And I'm looking at her, and she says, "Where are you boys from?" and we said, "California." "What are you guys doing here?" I said, "We're looking for work." And then we checked out and waited for the bus station right next to it. And she and her friend come in and she focuses on me and she says, "Why don't you stay here? There's lots of jobs here." In my mind, "Should I? Should I not?" [Laughs] And I said, "No, I shouldn't do this."

TI: So you wanted to stay loyal to your friend and go with him?

PT: Yes. So she'll find someone, and I shouldn't feel sorry for her. So then we went to...

TI: Cleveland?

PT: Cleveland, yes. And his brother, that's the reason we went there is his brother was one of the persons running the office there, and his wife. Two of the probably significant older Niseis, I wish I could remember their name.

TI: That's okay. Later on when you get the transcript, you can just write in the names.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.