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MN: I want to ask a little bit about your father. I know you said before you left for camp he was still, not feeling good, but still working.

LW: Yes.

MN: When did your father pass away?

LW: When?

MN: When, what year did he pass away?

LW: Oh, yeah, he died in 1944.

MN: And where were you when he passed away -- or before, right before he passed away?

LW: I was in Cleveland during the short break between summer quarter and the fall quarter. I was, I went up there because my sister had relocated into Cleveland, so she had a small apartment there in Cleveland, so it was my chance to leave Kentucky, go up for, to find a short term job where I could earn a little bit of money. And while I was, and so I was working in a short term job in Cleveland, and then at that time we got a call from my mother in camp, saying to us, "Papa doesn't have too much longer. He's going down. We want all of you to return to Poston." So we made arrangements. I quit my job, we made arrangements to get on the train and start back to Poston.

MN: Did you get back to Poston in time to have a last time with your dad?

LW: Yes, we got there, I think it was about ten days to a week before he died, so we were able to be with him in the, he was in, let's see, Camp I? I forgot. I guess the camp, it was, the hospital was in Camp I, so we were able to stay with him or have a watch over him twenty-four hours with all of us siblings there until he died.

MN: That must've been nice for him to have the entire family there.

LW: Oh yes, that was very, very reassuring, very comforting to him, and of course to my mother because I think at that time my mother, all the others had pretty much left, but my mother and my youngest sister were still in camp, so they had the responsibility of caring for him in the early days of his illness, but with the siblings coming in and helping him it was a real support to the entire family.

MN: Did your father have any parting words?

LW: No, he didn't. I don't remember him saying anything. Oh, I remember once, my brother-in-law and several others, my sisters were pretty good singers, so we stood outside his window in the hospital and sang him some hymns, some songs that... and when he, when we got back in he would nod his head and, I don't, he wasn't able to say very much. He just, it was mainly nodding his head in a way of saying thank you, and also nodding his head in terms of some of the family always being there with him.

MN: And what was the physical ailment that took his life?

LW: It was cancer of the liver, so that's, he was feeling that even before we evacuated, while he was still feeling some, some pain.

MN: And what did the family do with your father's body?

LW: He was cremated there and the ashes were kept in an urn, and my mother kept them in the barrack apartment so that when we returned she would be able to bring the urn with her.

MN: Now you said he was cremated there. In Parker or in, on the camp site itself?

LW: It must've been in a facility somewhere. I don't think the camp facility did not have that, but it must've been in some nearby city where that took place.

MN: During the 1980s you testified before the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians about your father.

LW: Yes.

MN: Can you share about what you said before them?

LW: Yes, I shared the fact that my father had... oh yes, I shared that experience two weeks before we were to evacuate from Reedley, he and I went out to the farm, it was the end of July, the crops were ready for harvest, and we went out there to do something and he said, "It's not right. It's not right." And that's the first time I ever saw him in tears, so I shared that experience as part of my testimony, and then the other thing I said was, was that he was never able to return to the farm, the one that had provided the sustenance for him and his entire family. And the official, the medical reason for his dying was cancer of the liver, but I feel like he died of a broken heart since he was never able to return. That was the simple testimony I submitted.

MN: So summer of 1944 your father passed away, and I assume you had to go back to school. Is that what you did?

LW: Yes, as soon as the, I think the day after the funeral service, I needed to get back because it was already about second or third week of the beginning of the fall semester back in college, so I knew I had to get back as soon as possible.

MN: So you missed three weeks of college. Were you able to enroll?

LW: The dean was not going to, had said, "I can't let you take a full load because you're late," but the first time, the first time -- well, not the first time, but I felt like I needed to be very adamant about it, I didn't want to spend the extra time in college. I said, "You've got to let me enroll. Can I enroll? Even if I'm late, I will make up my lost time." And he kept saying, "I can't let you. The rules say I can't let you do that," but I kept arguing with him, but finally he relented and let me enroll and take a full load for that fall semester, so I was grateful for that.

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.